I am buta bit. I'm not techical. The Les paul has a wide vaiety of tones( Two or 3 humbucking pickups, neck (middle) bridge.) These have coils taps to turn them into single coils instead to twins, you can combine, all, neck and bridge, middle and neck, middle and bridge, also phase reverse and is able to go from gary Moore/peter green/Santana type blues sounds to heavy rock eg Slash from GnR. The Strat is a favourite of Clapton, Hendrix,mark Knopler again there is such a difference to be had in tones. Three Pickups, up to 5 (7 with specialist wiring I've heard)configuations. The tele, played by Jerri donahue, Richard thompson, pete townsend and 1000's of country players..The tele has three positions, neck, bridge and both pickups. The problem with talking about the tonal qualities is that so much depends upon the type of amp used.

If it was me-but I'm no expert and a crap player I'd go for the Les Paul as it can go from Slash to paul rodgers at the flick of a switch. But then there are many clones of all of these guitars. ESP is what santana is playing. The Yamaha Ls P copy ??2000 and ??3000 are excellent (can't remember model number at moment) Also whether you use valve or tranny amps and or effects units to get what you want.

get back to me and I'll get some reading material out and have a look. try a magazine like Guitarist or total guitar. There are some good electric mags in the USA.

Cheers

Eric