Hardware is a significant contributing factor as well.

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You dig?

I may have asked you this before, but I noticed you own an '04 50th Anniversary Strat. What are your thoughts on the guitar and does it sound better or worse than Strats of its ilk?

I happen to really love mine. The only change I made to it was to swop out the partchment PG with a perloid one.

+1, Guitslinger. No two sound exactly alike. Very true.

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

Interesting thread... before I share my opinion/experience I'm going to assume that you already have the "right" amp for the tone you want, cause no matter how much work you do to your guitar the amp is more important when it comes to tone IMO. You can take the best sounding Strat and plug it into a crappy amp and you'll get a crappy tone, you can't say the same thing about a crappy Strat into a sweet sounding amp.

I'm also going to assume that you are not using a pedalboard with lots of effects. The "upgrades" I did were all tested playing straight into the amp and playing clean mostly.

That said, here's what I've experienced while messing with my Strats...

Pickups and capacitors are probably the components that affect tone the most IMO. I recently found out that the right cap, value and type, played a big part in achieving the tone I like, but the results are different for different pickups. And don't forget pickup heights, it also affects your tone.

Wood type also makes a difference for me, not as much as pickups or caps, but it's there... using the same pickups in Strats with different wood yielded different results, some worked in one Strats and not in others.

Tremolo springs, if you have tremolo, also affect tone, not very noticeable but it's there... the springs I replaced added more reverb in a way. You can also add trem block to the list, but I didn't do a lot of tests with trem blocks and don't care to.

Strings also shape your tone, find whatever works for you and stick with it.

My Strats are good to go as far as tone, for me, any other changes are strictly for comfort and playability. I focus more on my amps cause in my opinion that's what matters the most. It's all about finding the right balance, with all the different components, that suit your tone and playing style.