to me it's neck, neck, neck with guitars.
Find a guitar with a comfortable neck and go from there.
That's always been the big seller for me as well, which took me down the path of SGs (could never get comfortable with Les Pauls beyond the 12th fret) and then a long period of hot rodded Strats. I just love the feel of a good Fender neck. I finally made it back into the native humbucker camp a couple of years ago when I found a PRS that I bonded with. Les Paul style tone without the things that didn't work for me.
However, another factor for me is the body of the guitar, and not from a tone perspective. In a rock band I'm fairly physical, so I need something I can move with. A Les Paul felt like it would dislocate my shoulder. I briefly played an Explorer and found that with certain moves I was accustomed to making I was going to break a thigh bone with that pointy back end.
I guess that's kind of a dumb priority, but in terms of rock I'm a rather simple creature.