I think I've got a better idea of what's happening now:
Cheap dodgy pick ups might not "pick up" the complete tonal spectrum, so some parts of the guitar's tone might be missing (or so quiet its undetectable).
A high quality valve amp may compensate for this (through high compression perhaps?).
A cheap and nasty amp might not be able to produce the whole tonal spectrum well in the same way the pick up couldn't detect an accurate snapshot of it. You have a weak, tonally sketchy signal fed into an amp that couldn't project those tonal elements anyway. Something sounds "missing" from the tone and it sounds thin and washed out.
The key here is the EQ. The whole tonal spectrum (or perhaps just the right parts of the tonal spectrum) need to be present and well represented.
Some of you have commented that bottom end and mid are the key elements, but I know some audio engineers will dump the bottom end of the guitar signal before they've heard you play a note.
I think someone else said its upper mid and treble you need. That is where the guitar sits best in the mix, but you can totally have a shrill, treble heavy sound that has this "empty" washed out vibe.
The over lapping ingredient here would be mid range. Perhaps you need a healthy dose (and range) of mid to sound full and fat, or perhaps you need the whole spectrum represented in a harmonically rich signal to get you over the line.
If your pick ups can do that, maybe you could have a full sound even plugged into a crappy solid state amp (and no, not all of them are crappy).
The one thing we can all agree on is not to let Billy Joel near your rig.
The other thing to remember is that there's a huge difference between a tone that works on its own, or 'out front' as a solo, and one that works in the background of a busy mix. Don't expect your settings that work on stage to translate directly to the studio.
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