by carlaz » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:37 pm
Yes, to go a little deeper, all kinds of factors affect the tone of a guitar, though body/neck(-joint) type and electronics are two big ones. As Peter_IK suggested, consider guitar-players who produce the kinds of guitar sounds that you want, and look at what kind of guitars they use.
Is it a set-neck violin-body-shape type of guitar, e.g. Les Paul types and SG types? Is it a "swept-forward" body with bolt-on neck, e.g. Telecaster and Stratocaster types? Is it a hollow-body? Does it have 2 or 3 thinner (i.e. single coil) pickups, or does it have a couple of wider pickups (double coil/humbuckers)?
You can readily find cheaper guitars of the SG, Strat, and Tele types (or derivatives); even some types of Les Paul guitars (clones of the Studio, or whatever) can be had without breaking the bank. Many of these can be quite well built (get a guitar-player friend to go with you to see what they think of the physical construction quality), but the electronics are often cheap or or lower quality. If I were getting a new guitar on a budget, I would look for a well-built but cheap construction of the type I liked, and then replace the electronics with 3rd-party options. However much it costs to buy new pickups., pots, wiring harness, etc., and get it all installed, it will cost less than buying a higher-end guitar that already comes with all those things.
So, if you wanted a Stratocaster-type guitar, get a Squier or a Yahama or something, and put in (or have a luthier put in) some new Seymour Duncan or whatever pickups and associated wiring. You can readily end up with a very fine guitar that cost you a lot less, in the end, then many more expensive guitars that might easily sound worse!