I'm a believer in the theory that a fair amout of 'tone' comes from your fingers. After that, I like a very simple setup: tube amp head set to where it's just overdriving, OD pedal in front of it driving it to distortion, and a boost pedal in the FX loop.
As far a pickups go, I like a bridge humbucker and single coil neck.
For effects, I play without reverb or delay -- just guitar, OD, and amp. Sometimes I use a BOSS noise supressor to get rid of noise.
Now, as for the actual sound I'm shooting for, I guess I would say it's a cross between the classic 80s LA metal tone with a dash of the powermetal sound invented by one Kai Hanson from Helloween. I prefer a sound that's gainy, but not over-distorted - you should be able to hear the actual guitar around the distortion. Think of Ratt's Out of the Cellar, or Dokken's Tooth And Nail type of sound on steroids.
BKPs have gone a long way in terms of the S I Z E of my guitar sound -- I think it sounds much larger, more focused, and has more resolution.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
One thing you have to realize is when you listen to a commercial recording of a guitar, there's a LOT going on at different stages to make that sound. It's virtually impossible to recreate a studio console's vintage EQ, compression, and other top notch effects used in creating a guitar sound, and that's without considering the microphone's make/model/position.
I thought I had a decent guitar tone until we started mixing and I was able to put all the guitar tracks through a Pultec EQ ... it really helped tranform my sound! If somone wanted to mimic that sound, they would not only need the guitar and amp I used, but the EQ, too.
