This is an interesting subject for me. My next guitar will be something like a Suhr Standard, 22 frets and a humbucker in the neck. To me, the neck humbucker on my Les Paul and the neck single coil on my '54 RI Strat (21 frets) sound very distinct are definitive neck position sounds. None of my other guitar's neck positions (or middle for that matter) sound like those. I'm lead to believe it's because of the 24 frets and the placement of the pickups. My Ibanez Jem and RG's and especially my Petrucci seem to trade some of the individual pickup's tone for the space of 24 frets, all on a 25.5" scale guitar. There's way more tone variation between pickups on my Strat and Les Paul then the others. I won't get into the physics or other variables like wood choices, pickups, etc, but the difference is noticeable, instantly. HOWEVER!!- The 24 fret guitars sound cool too, just different. My main gigging guitar is my Petrucci, because it does everything. That sound does lend itself to a certain tone and style of playing (shred, for lack of a better word). Maybe because that's what we're familiar with all these years.
There's an interesting video out there where Joe Satriani , when going from 22 to 24 frets, discusses his 24 fret version of his Ibanez signature model. I believe he said he wanted the neck single coil positioned close as possible to the neck to get the desired sound.
Like the other posts, trust your ears and get what you like. I like all of them for different things.
On a side note, I thought it was hilarious how this turned into a discussion about Ed Roman. Never met the guy or visited his store, but spent countless hours on his site reading his rants. Like a bad talk show, a train wreck, a car accident, or a bar fight, the temptation to watch (or read in this case) was too great.
