TL;DR: how the heck do I start getting one guitar's tone to sound more like another's?
Or, if it's easier to share, how did you go about finding your favorite tone?
I've been learning on an LTD viper-400 for the past few months, and then bought an epiphone SG g-400 recently because 1) I really, really, really wanted this look since forever; and 2) one finally popped up locally at a price point I've been waiting for.
Just talking about the difference when unplugged:
The epiphone sounds exactly how I've heard it in videos, but I didn't realize guitars could sound this different. I just like my viper's sound so much better, and... I'm ignorant enough to not know how to describe why. The SG just sounds... Airier? Lighter? The strings are definitely different. The sg has some smooth feeling to it, maybe because they're new strings, according to the seller. Do I just start with trying to figure my viper's string gauges or something and buy those for the SG? Though they both have almost the same low action, the strings on my viper feel more taught; might be just because of the jumbo frets, but is tighter-feeling strings a thing?
And when plugged in, I like each of their clean sounds, but favor the viper's a little more. I'm even less sure how to describe why or what the difference really is. Is there a process to fiddle with knobs? At what point do I start considering switching pickups? I can't tell what pickups the SG has, other than they're probably the originals. The viper's should be original too, seymour Duncan custom-5 (bridge) and jazz (neck) pickups.
Even though, generally, I've fallen in love with the viper, there isn't enough room in my home for two guitars at this time. That's a c/relationshipadvice issue, lmao. I'm keeping the ~~Homewrecker~~ iconic SG and selling ~~Sexy~~ my viper once I figure this out, and that's that. But yeah, tone. How does it work
Well as for the unplugged sound, SGs tend to have thinner bodies and that changes the overall acoustic of the instrument, try confronting it with the Viper to see if this is the case.
As for the electronics, by a quick reasearch online I found out that your LTD's pickups have almost double the output level than the SG's and that makes a big difference in how sound is perceived.
Louder pickups tend to saturate your amp earlier, so you gain power but you lose a little bit of sensitivity and dynamic. There is no "better" solution, it all depends on what you want to play: if you like heavy genres try to reproduce the output of your Viper, if you want to play blues the SG is great as it is.
Thank you. Given everyone's input, I'll think I'll play with the sound of my SG in different genres, and I'll save up to try new pickups someday