Well, there’s tones you expect you can get out of a Strat and tones you expect to get from a Tele, there’s definitely some areas they merge at, especially at the bridge pickup, but if I started breaking things into “less bassy, more bite”, there’s all that room for “Just turn up the bass or treble”.
I think a lot of what makes a Tele a Tele is due to the bridge that, at best, you’d have to deck a Strat’s trem to get close to. There’s definitely a different kind of attack the notes have with a Tele that ‘soften’ as a result of springs giving a bit on a Strat, you can get a bit more ‘punch’ or whatever adjective you want to throw in there that people can debate about all day long.
There’s also the vibe aspect that I freely admit influences me when making guitar choices. I could get Les Paul tones out of any of my humbucker guitars all day long, but when I got the itch for a Les Paul, only a Les Paul was going to cut it!
