Trying to decide: Luke III: HH or HSS?

[ruger9]

Hey all, first post. So I want to get a Luke III, it would be a new one with the EBMM pickups because I want the Fuschia Sparkle. But having a hard time deciding between HH and HSS...

I already have a great HH guitar, a PRS DGT.
I already have a great HSS guitar, a Fender Strat, with my neck and pickup choices (JB bridge and YJM neck and middle). And a Bladerunner vibrato bridge. At this point, it's a partscaster.

The Luke HSS would likely replace my strat (assuming I loved it), I don't need 2 HSS guitars.
The HH would likely NOT replace my DGT, unless I end up loving the Luke even more than the DGT.

I love the DGT bridge pickup, which is modeled after a PAF. I love the JB bridge, but it can be a little much at the times I'm looking for a more vintage-y tone (works great for Lukather and Sambora tho LOL).

I love strat and tele neck pickups, and I HATE strat middle pickups as I always hit them with my pick so I have to lower them, making the in-between positions a little weak. I love and prefer the LOOKS of the Luke HH. If it had a switch position that was a coil tap of the neck pickup, I would probably be sold on the HH. I don't know if the parallel wiring sounds anything like a single coil? I've never played a guitar that had it, and there's no one around here that carries these guitars so I'll be buying unplayed.

I play clean and semi-clean neck pickup alot. Which is why I love the neck pickups on my strat and tele. Even my P90 tele. But neck humbuckers never really do it for me... If I set the amp so the neck humbucker sound great, when I switch to the bridge it's too thin. And vice versa: if I set the amp for the bridge pickup to sound great, the neck is too muddy.

I'd love to hear any advice anyone has... since I won't be able to play them without buying them...

 

[beej]

That's a tough one. But it sounds like you don't really like neck humbuckers, so I think you'd be safer with HSS. (That said, you can't lower the pickups on this guitar, so keep that in mind.)

The HH has some cool wiring- positions 2 & 4 give you some nice clean sounds and might do it for you. Not quite tele, not quite strat, but covers a lot of ground. (Same wiring as most of the other HH Musicman guitars, so you can listen to demos.) This, and the fact that the wiring harness is complicated with the onboard preamp, means that re-wiring the neck pickup to be split or in parallel is a bit complicated. (And even then, it wouldn't sound like a great single coil.)

Both guitars are incredible (I have both). Good luck

 

[ruger9]

That's a tough one. But it sounds like you don't really like neck humbuckers, so I think you'd be safer with HSS. (That said, you can't lower the pickups on this guitar, so keep that in mind.)

Both guitars are incredible (I have both). Good luck

Oh I hadn't thought of that; if I can't lower the middle pickup out of the way, that would be a deal-breaker for me. On my strat I am able to lower the middle pickup... not all the way to body or anything drastic, but I reduce it's height by about half so I don't hit it with my pick. Thanks for bringing that up.

This makes me think I should go for the HH, but then do a de-mud mod on the neck pickup to get rid of some low end. Hmm...

 

[DrKev]

The EBMM pickups in the LIII are the same single coils that are in the Cutlass. I know the Cutlass doesn't come in fuschia sparkle but there are more color options out there and sometimes a limited edition BFR pops up used on Reverb.

 

[Youngblood67]

Hey all, first post. So I want to get a Luke III, it would be a new one with the EBMM pickups because I want the Fuschia Sparkle. But having a hard time deciding between HH and HSS...

I already have a great HH guitar, a PRS DGT.
I already have a great HSS guitar, a Fender Strat, with my neck and pickup choices (JB bridge and YJM neck and middle). And a Bladerunner vibrato bridge. At this point, it's a partscaster.

The Luke HSS would likely replace my strat (assuming I loved it), I don't need 2 HSS guitars.
The HH would likely NOT replace my DGT, unless I end up loving the Luke even more than the DGT.

I love the DGT bridge pickup, which is modeled after a PAF. I love the JB bridge, but it can be a little much at the times I'm looking for a more vintage-y tone (works great for Lukather and Sambora tho LOL).

I love strat and tele neck pickups, and I HATE strat middle pickups as I always hit them with my pick so I have to lower them, making the in-between positions a little weak. I love and prefer the LOOKS of the Luke HH. If it had a switch position that was a coil tap of the neck pickup, I would probably be sold on the HH. I don't know if the parallel wiring sounds anything like a single coil? I've never played a guitar that had it, and there's no one around here that carries these guitars so I'll be buying unplayed.

I play clean and semi-clean neck pickup alot. Which is why I love the neck pickups on my strat and tele. Even my P90 tele. But neck humbuckers never really do it for me... If I set the amp so the neck humbucker sound great, when I switch to the bridge it's too thin. And vice versa: if I set the amp for the bridge pickup to sound great, the neck is too muddy.

I'd love to hear any advice anyone has... since I won't be able to play them without buying them...

Interesting…
i also own a PRS DGT(along with a few other guitars) and i ordered a new Luke iii, due to arrive tomorrow. I was up in the air on which model to get,ended up opting for the hss model. My DGT covers my 2 humbucker/trem guitar ”needs”,but i didnt have a hss guitar in my arsenal. Looking forward to getting my Luke iii !!!

 

[Virtuoso]

I HATE strat middle pickups as I always hit them with my pick so I have to lower them, making the in-between positions a little weak.

Could you just vary your pick position by an inch? Less drastic than changing the pickup height and it means you don't have to compromise on the tones that you like.

I'm not a fan of neck humbuckers, so all my Lukes are HSS.

 

[ruger9]

Could you just vary your pick position by an inch? Less drastic than changing the pickup height and it means you don't have to compromise on the tones that you like.

I'm not a fan of neck humbuckers, so all my Lukes are HSS.

I've been playing 37 years, I'm not going to change my playing technique now LOL. Like I said, I lowered the middle pickup on my strat and it's fine (I guess you can't lower the pickups on a Luke? IDK how low/high the pickups are because I've never seen one in person.

I'm not a fan of neck humbuckers either (except in jazz), that's why I end up "de-mud"ing my neck HBs. It's a simple mod, you put a cap and resistor on the hot lead of the neck humbucker to cut some low end. Different value caps cut more or less low end. I've been doing it for years, most recently to my DGT. It doesn't make the neck HB sound like a single coil, but it makes it sound like a very clear PAF... I can even use it with gain no problem.

I've watched a bunch of demos, and I will say that I do NOT like any of the in-between positions (2 & 4) on the Luke III HH. They all sound quite thin to me, and I would likely never use them. But truth be told, I don't use those positions on my HSS strat much either, so it's not a big deal.