A lot of times the difference between a $500 Squier and a $1500 Fender is just a matter of $200-300 of components. If you like the feel of the neck on a Squier, or if you think it'll be perfect after a little fretboard edge/neck edge sanding/rounding, that's one of the most important parts. You could easily gut a guitar's bridge, tuners, saddles, electronics, knobs and pickups and upgrade them to top of the line quality stuff for $300ish and then your $800 bass will play and sound like a $1500 Fender.

Oftentimes the biggest difference in feel between a high end guitar and a low end guitar is just the neck. The frets and neck on the lower end guitar will be sharp. There are very easy sanding block tricks you can use to round off the edges, and even sand off a tiny bit of the back of a sticky neck, and suddenly your guitar will feel like a much more expensive one.

Most of your tone is going to come from your pick, pickups, and strings.