There are lots of comments to the tune of "wood doesn't affect an electric guitar's tone, only strings do".

That is utterly daft. Daft beyond words. Cretin.

A maple-neck Stratocaster sounds very different to an all-mahogany SG, as an example. Why? Not just because of the scale and electronics and so on. Also because of different woods.

The "rationale" behind the mad statement above is that electromagnetic pickups only sense steel strings, not the wood.

But, the strings' sound already includes the wooden tone. It's as simple as that; the only way strings won't have the tone of their underlying platform is if the guitar's built out of a stone or concrete wall (no wooden parts whatsoever). Even then there might be some stone or concrete overtones.

The vibration of strings' underlying surface (a slab of wood in the case of a solid electric guitar) is added to the metal tone of strings. The wood's resonant character affects strings just the same as it affects a drumhead. The physics are simple - strings (or drumheads) fire into the wood, the soundwave goes through the wood and is bounced back into the strings with the wood's resonant pattern and added (or subtracted) energy. As an example, basswood has next to no resonance except a boomy bass response (basswood drums are famous for being awful to mix because of that), mahogany has a "toasty" darkish tone with strong lower midrange when in an overdriven guitar, it is also used for thunderous, warmish drums; maple has a fairly high primary resonance frequency and so is great for recording in either drums or guitars (maple guitar necks are by far the cleanest-sounding). Ash (a favourite of Leo Fender) subtracts itself from a guitar's tone when used as a body anchor with a maple neck, hence the thinner, clear tone of higher-end Stratocasters.

A guitar with no wood (or other resonant material), just the strings set in a stone or lead or glass base, would be very dull. A glass guitar, as an example, would be utterly dead-sounding as thick glass absorbs sound instead of firing it back into strings. As an experiment, tape a glass ashtray to an electric guitar and hear the change in its character. It'll go dullish. All a fixed or sound-absorbing guitar might produce will be a rather hushed-up, dead string sound with next to no life and sparkle, no warm, thick body as that of a regular wooden guitar.

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