Eddie's sound wasn't just the guitar. When that pickup was analysed later, they discovered that one coil was partially shorted, making the two coils very unbalanced and giving it a little single-coil openness and edge. Most of the best PAF humbuckers unbalance the coils slightly these days as it's been found to give the best tone.
As for the wood, ash is a bright choice, unless you go super light (under 3.5lbs. for a Strat body), where it starts to warm up and thicken - but can get a bit mushy for high gain. Alder is a bit less toppy, has a more balanced midrange too, and is still a fairly lightweight wood. Otherwise mahogany is usually the first choice for a warmer body wood - so much so that if you don't have a maple cap on a body a maple board and neck or ebony on mahogany are advisable to get some articulation.
Lots of info on body woods here:
http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/bodywoods.shtml - as you can see from that, there are lots of choices.
