I realize this could be the subject of an entire forum or book, but maybe someone can help with at least laying out the important bits. Lots of people get into guitar and I feel like most of them, myself included, get obsessed or at least infatuated with certain gear or even the idea of certain gear without truly understanding what differences it really makes.
Granted, I know some of this is subjective opinion, but I was hoping some informed individuals could give some info on some of the common items players get hung up on, and give their opinion on where spending our hard-earned money truly matters.
Here are a few common items we desire and a couple broad topics. Some are a sound, some are pieces of gear (or even parts of a piece of gear), please help enlighten myself and/or others on one or more of these (or add your own) on what does/doesn't make a big difference in tone, sound, quality, etc., and maybe give an example of what would be a good purchase for each.
1. All the experts say tone is in the fingers, but what is the most important piece of gear for your personal tone? If you had $2000 right now to improve your sound, what purchase would make the most difference: an amp, a guitar, upgrading parts of each?
2. What is the most important aspect of a guitar that someone should be evaluating when looking to upgrade? (Obviously this is going to depend on what you are into to an extent, but..) For instance, is the type of wood the body/neck made of that important? Why is a set neck vs. bolt-on neck important, or does it even matter? Is it really worth buying a custom PRS over an SE line PRS for the average to above-average player? If I have only owned one or two guitars, I don't have a huge frame of reference, so what do I need to be wary of?
3. Can someone please explain P-90 pickups - the sound vs. traditional single-coil and humbuckers. What type of sound is it, that if I said to you, "I want my sound to be like this... or I want to model my tone after the guitar sound on this album..." that would make you say I should get P-90s over the other types of pups?
4. What piece of gear do you see many people get hung up on, that really is a waste of time, or at least not as important as people seem to think?
5. For your standard blues/rock and roll/hard rock/heavy metal guitar player, what would you suggest as the best basic guitar-amp set-up (i.e. a specific guitar and amp model)? Like, if someone isn't necessarily into some specific genre/sound like math-rock or black metal or whatever, but just wants to rock and play a variety of styles all within the basic rock/heavy metal platform.
Hopefully you get the basic idea of what I am getting at. Feel free to respond to any of these questions or add/answer your own that you hear often or that you find yourself thinking, "gee, if people would just realize _______ about guitar gear/playing, they could save so much time/money by focusing on the things that really matter for your sound (beyond practice, practice, and more practice of course.)
Thanks