Bear with me on this.... you taste with your eyes, your nose and your tongue. Properly smoked food should not be overwhelming to the nose or the tongue, but should have a pleasant smokiness that should compliment the flavor of the meat. And frankly, it's hard to get that level of flavor. So, what does it take? "Less is more better" is the best advice I've ever gotten, and that was 45 years ago. Don't worry about not being able to identify specific flavors of woods, hardly anyone can. If you can distinguish between a
light flavor (like alder and apple), a
medium flavor (like cherry, peach, maple, and maybe pecan), or a
heavy flavor (like oak and hickory) that is good enough because I guarantee you your guests can't pick the specific woods either. Mesquite is unique because it is likely the strongest flavor wood. I grew up using it and we always burned it down to coals which I like. I use mesquite lump for beef, but it's too strong for me as a flavor wood in chunk form added to charcoal.
Chips kind of have a bad rap because in the '70's they were the shortcut to wonderful smokey food which was only available from BBQ joints or from backyard barbecuists that spent hours cooking dinner. Chip manufacturers always recommended soaking them in water (which is wrong) and of the few early brands of electric smokers only the Big Chief/Little Chief and maybe some bullets like Brinkman survived. Other uses for chips were adding to charcoal by the handful on your
Weber kettle, which is like a flash in a pan, or using in a smoke tray or pouch on a gas grill.
Will your electric smoker burn pellets? I have vintage Big and Little Chiefs and pellets work wonderfully, and it takes small amounts.