People talk about the greats sounding like themselves on any guitar. I'm not a great, but I think I do too.
I played a single HSS Strat nearly exclusively for 18 years.
Picked up a Gibson SG this spring. The guitar had a totally different sound than what I was used to.
I put the biggest flatwound strings I could find on it - George Benson .14s.
I made a recording for a buddy with the SG on the neck pickup. He responds: "great playing! Is that on a Strat?"
He turned me on to a band called Khruangbin. I would've sworn the guy was playing on a semi hollow body or other jazz box. Nope, he plays one Strat, and uses his knobs and an always-on wah pedal to manipulate his tone.
It got me thinking. How maybe when we focus on differences, we hear them plain as day. But then maybe when we set that aside and get back to playing, back to our comfortable zone of how we pick, how we adjust our settings, what we're trying to achieve in a given musical scenario, and use our ears and hands to guide us, that our weapon of choice doesn't matter nearly as much as our vision and capability in realizing that vision (maybe this is a parallel for our sociopolitical differences too. Not the place for that discussion, but food for thought).
I've certainly read about this in magazines, forums, etc. But experiencing it firsthand with my own playing seems to drive it home. If I could package this realization, I'd keep several jars on hand and retire early by selling the rest as anti-GAS medication.
Do you sound like you, no matter what you play? If so, how does that impact which instrument you choose for a given scenario? If not, how do you keep your multitude of options from distracting you from making music?
