CandidPicker
Tone Matters. Use It Well.
So I have 4 fndr guitars... these account for 2, the others do not sound tinny. They all have maple boards. They are also all played through the same amps, same pedals and same ‘single coil’ setting on EQ pedal. Those are my single coil guitars.
I prefer the sound of a single coil (as compared to a humbucker) so I like the thinness you describe. I don’t like tinny though. To my ears, there’s a difference between a Strat sound and tinny.
Yeah, I’m not that kind of bored either. I get all the freshness I need by experimenting in natural healthcare. It’s a constant stream of freshness because of new ingredients and supplements. I just want these guitars to get to the point that I can play them more often because the Strat body shape is getting to me... and the Strat is my go to guitar for practice.
Casi,
I need to ask, are the tinny sounding guitars all USA-made, or perhaps do they have different body woods (ash/alder/poplar)? Some imports from foreign countries, including Korea or Indonesia which have light poplar body woods are by definition going to sound thinner, just because of the composition, not because of the pickups, pickup height, neck, finish, tuners, nut, bridge, etc.
If this is the case, you can stop searching for the reason why some of your guitars sound tinny. They will, only because the body wood will help define how the tone will be.
One additional thought is to consider the electronics (caps and resistors) attached to your pots. Although I'm not personally well-versed in what values will improve your tone, perhaps someone with better knowledge can steer you in then correct direction as to what cap/resistor values will improve your tone.
Rather than try to mod any physical parts (tuners, bridge, etc) which would affect guitar value more drastically, I'd ask myself if modding the cap or resistor values would improve the tone. All you might need are some original wiring diagrams for your guitars and some applied knowledge of what values will do for your tone.