Luke 3 Tremolo Arm tip

[beppe]

Hi all, just took delivery of a Luke 3 today. Superb guitar. Anyway I notice the tip on my trem bar is black while I was expecting chrome. Not that it matters at all but did some luke 3's ship with black and some with chrome tips? Great guitar, really is.
Thanks

 

[A.J.]

HSS ship with black. HH Ship with chrome.

 

[beppe]

Mine is HH. Somebody messed up then!

 

[ksandvik]

It's unique!

 

[meloney0]

Oh, bummer - somebody at the store put in the wrong arm, maybe? Chrome doesn't only look better, it feels nicer, too. Hope you may still get this sorted!

 

[beppe]

Thanks. AJ has arranged for the right one to be sent. I will let you know when it arrives!

 

[blackbee0045]

I notice the tip on my trem bar is black while I was expecting chrome. ???

 

[Craiguitar]

Perhaps you got a Luke II trem arm in error? Actually I prefer the Luke II trem arm because it's smaller and lower. The LIII arm seems very unwieldy in comparison, and therefore much less comfortable. I kind of got used to it, but prefer the Luke II arm still.

 

[beppe]

The new trem tip (chrome ) has arrived. Thanks to EBMM! Problem is I cant get the old one off. I have been told it should simply unscrew and the new one can screw straight on. This is not the case so far. Also been told the Luke 2 and 3 arms are the same apart from the tip so any advice is welcome. Does the Luke 2 tip unscrew easily? thanks

 

[Craiguitar]

The Luke II arm is quite a bit smaller than the LIII arm.
Also the Luke II arm is angled differently, so when fitted, the tip of the arm is lower / closer to the guitar body. I find the Luke II arm very easy & comfortable to use. As far as I can see both the Luke II & LIII arms both have tips that are fixed quite solidly. I've never tried to remove the tip from either arm. I've considered changing the LIII arm for a Luke II arm, which I might still do at some point

 

[A.J.]

The trem arm for the Luke 2 is the same as the Luke 3. They use the exact same trem and arm (with the exception of a chrome tip on the HH Luke 3). Any difference in angle should be slight and could be due to tolerances in manufacturing.

 

[Craiguitar]

The top arm is Luke II, and the bottom one is LIII. Big difference! Note not only the length of the arm, but the angle.

 

[ksandvik]

There's a small screw in the block that tightens the tremolo arm (which is nice, take note Fender), try to loosen this up to se if it's easier to pull out the tremolo arm.

 

[look_at_her]

Yes, you are spot on ksandvik, but it's not the topic here - I believe beppe is trying to take off the tip only, not the whole arm.
Used to have olive gold LIII HH , my trem tip was indeed chrome, and unscrewed rather easy. Now I have bodhi blue hss , the trem feels a bit different than on my rad red LII.

 

[ksandvik]

Oh, sorry the tip, yes. Hmm, grease the inside with something?

 

[Spudmurphy]

The tip is metal? Try immersing it in hot water to expand it - then quickly wrap a rubber (elastic) band around it and screw it off. Haven't tried it - but the methodology is sound?

 

[xjbebop]

I like the rubber band part, but put it in the freeze for a bit...then the parts will contract away from each other and hopefully loosen the threads.

 

[Craiguitar]

I see on the UK site you can order a replacement arm, either with the black tip or the chrome tip.They're only cheap, £13 or so, which is pretty good

So my question is this, and I realise I'm going off topic again but do you think if I ordered a repacement arm with the black tip, it would be the correct size (as per the photo I posted earlier)? If so, then I could get one, and swap the black tip for the chrome one from my stupidly oversized LIII arm.

Also, I suppose it would be nice to have a spare anyway.....

 

[Kallomatik]

The top arm is Luke II, and the bottom one is LIII. Big difference! Note not only the length of the arm, but the angle.

I also own a L2 and L3 and noticed the big difference in the trem arm angle. While the one from L2 feels comfortable, with the L3 one it is very hard to pick while holding the arm with the remaining fingers like Luke often does.
I asked Luke at a meet and greet but he did not get the point or was not aware of this issue (maybe my english was not good enough ...).
I can't imagine that Luke wanted the trem arm that way so maybe the difference is just due to very big manufacturing tolerances and Luke just got the right ones 'cause his guitar tech noticed the difference and changed it.

Does anyone have information about this? If Luke really uses the new version, I would try to get used to it but if it is a manufacturing issue maybe there's an updated version of the trem arm available?

Luke pays L2 and L3 as well at concerts, so it's unlikely that he uses different trem arms.