That said, about magic in the circuit or ghost in the machine 😉 , the special tone of Edward van Halen comes from a defective pickup, the special tone of Peter Green comes from an error in the wiring putting the pickups of his Les Paul out of phase in the center position, the special tone of Brian May comes from the accumulation of mistakes in the building of his guitar by his father (neck wood and building not allowing a standard gauge but an ultra light one, ultra low output homemade pickups needing an external buffer and booster, an overall very poor construction of the guitar giving such a thin sound he had to do a lot of tricks), ...
So yes, the magic can reside in the circuitry Chris.