To my mind if it's not based on objective scientific evidence then it's an appeal to authority. We are often wrong about things as we tend to act subjectively on incomplete information which is very sensible in evolutionary terms (doing a peer reviewed study on whether it really is a hungry bear behind that tree is likely to result in that group of neolithic nerds not reproducing), so hard facts are, to me, the arbiter. My Strat copy sounded fine, but even that's just an anecdote, not data. I didn't record it before trying to refinish it, so it would be hard to demonstrate any changes before the pickup and body modifications to present here, though, as some minimal level of data.
In terms of my views on tonewood, I can't see that given the relatively minimal amount of energy that is going to be entering the body and the relatively similar properties of the commonly used woods in manufacturing that there could be much effect, at least to the degree we can distinguish it. But if someone does the tests and shows me there is a difference I will change my opinion. I used to think that tone wood did make a difference until I thought about it and also looked at the tests some others had done, although those are not statistically significant, hence I have to remain somewhat sceptical of all elements of the argument.
