I've said this once, and I'll say it again now, "tone" is in the hands inasmuch as I can play my Parker through a Bogner or a Steinberger through a Fender practice amp or a Les Paul through a Marshall and it's going to sound like ME. The differences in woods, fret composition, hardware, pickups, pots, caps, wiring, strings, picks, cables, amps, tubes, transistors, transformers, resistors, ic chips, pedals, speakers, microphones, mixing consoles, outboard gear, tape, converters....they make up only a small percentage of what tonal differentiation we perceive as players and listeners. As Hogarth said, each new component or change thereof is imparting a tiny fraction of a percentage to the overall package.
All that being said, a great Italian chef will still tinker with their marinara sauce recipe until the day they die.