Many people get confused between "tone" and "vibrational transfer." In a solid body electric the wood affects the vibrational transfer of the tone from the neck through the body. In essence, the material used to construct the guitar affects the overall length and strength of sustain. The tone is purely constructed from the pickups, wiring, quality of pots and caps. To most, this translates to the ear thinking they hear a tone difference. However, you are hearing the tone amplified and often sustained longer.
I'll go even further in saying that wood choice has very little affect when speaking about acoustic construction. I have in my possession right now a Martin OMC made with cherry back, sides, front block and neck with a sitka top. The braces are unscalloped sitka and the guitars sounds almost identical to my traditional rosewood/sitka. To go even further to debunk the "all maple= shrill and bright" argument. I just purchased a Martin GPCPA prototype made in 2007. It's made with Flamed maple top, sides, back and neck. The fretboard is Richlite. The bridge is Richlite and the front block is made of stataply (which is a mixture of burch and maple.) It's got enough low end bass to over power any mix and the midrange and treble are perfect. Keep in mind that this is a big body Grand Perfoermance Martin so it's expected to be loud. The maple did nothing to demising that.
You can take a guitar made with any crap wood and match it with the correct electronics and have a wonderful sounding guitar. Look at Danelectro. Guitars made from pressed board and I doubt many can deny their classic tone.