i've been going "around the block" for about 2-3 years now. testing guitars at vintage guitar stores (in essence a used guitar store)
i have also been asking different opinions.
so far, my personal realization is that, sound wise, a good guitar should have a wide "vocal range. example, kunwari, magandang strat. imagine 3 circles representing a les paul, strat and a tele. a good strat would over lap into the les paul and tele circles. it may not fully sound like a les paul or even have the LP's famous dual tone but it came make really fat tones. on the other hand, a good strat can twang a little bit.
in the same manner, a good tele should be able to sound like a strat in some way. and a good les paul should be able to do good tele sounds. in fact, old les pauls are known to be "teles on steriods".
the problem is, mahirap hanapin ang ganung gitara.
pero if maka hanap ng ganun, i'd like to have one guitar talaga.
sound aside, meron ding physical limitations, ex 21 frets. of course if you like the type of music na laging umaabot sa 22-24 frets, maiinis ka lang din.
for me the next best answer would be to have one classic style electric guitar and a modern style guitar, both with wide vocal ranges.
but again, maybe we're talking about the top 5% of guitars at mahirap hanapin yun.
simplest way na lang siguro is to have a few guitars.