Awesome Has Arrived! Luke III is Here!

[JasonT]

This is a comparison between the Ernie Ball / Music Man Albert Lee HH and Luke III HH

In my opinion, this is a very bad demo of both guitars. The feel of each guitar makes a difference. I happen to like both the Al HH and the LIII but your milage may vary. I wouldn't want anyone to make any judgements on these fine instruments based on sound clips heard from the internet through a computer speaker.

That said, I found the LIII pickups to be very nice and almost high-fi sounding. The pre-amp has a lot to do with it. The sound is very "alive". Not sure how else to explain it. These pickups have a bit more growl when used with an overdrive channel. Again, you probably can't tell from this short demo.

The Al HH has the same pickups as the Axis but the Al HH humbuckers are covered. Compared to the LIII pickups, these sound a tad warmer to my ear.

Recorded using the microphone on my iPad. Everything played through an EVH 5150 III 50 watt w/ 12" EVH cab at bedroom volume. Only effect is TC Electronics Hall of Fame Reverb on the plate setting placed in the 5150 III effects loop.

I play each pickup selector position on each guitar starting with the neck pickup, then the next postion all the way to the 5th position which is just the bridge pickup. First guitar played is the Albert Lee HH followed by the LIII HH. At the tail end of the clip, I play each guitar through the channel 2 (blue channel) which is close to EVH's Plexi sound.

Check it out here:

Al HH vs LIII demo by Kimonostereo on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Thanks for posting that!

 

[Kriig]

Thanks

Was this with or without the boost engaged on the LIII?

 

[kimonostereo]

Thanks

Was this with or without the boost engaged on the LIII?

No boost engaged.

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

Thank's for the sound clips Kimonostereo ! Congrats on the L111, I love the Boost and total vibe the L111 puts out.
Mine will arrive sometime in June. I got the Olive Gold as well. I posted before that Music Man & Lukather really hit
a home run with this guitar. I did not pull the trigger on the True Gold because I was waiting for this. I had no idea though it would be even more fantastic than it already was. The 3% bigger ? Can you tell where? Have you compared the size to another Luke?

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

One more thing Kimon...Was your L111 set up with the Bridge Floating when you got it. My Roasted Luke was. I left it like that and I use Ernie Ball 8-38's #2225 I also Tune down a half a step. The tone is just unbelievable.

 

[kimonostereo]

One more thing Kimon...Was your L111 set up with the Bridge Floating when you got it. My Roasted Luke was. I left it like that and I use Ernie Ball 8-38's #2225 I also Tune down a half a step. The tone is just unbelievable.

Yep! All Luke's come with the floating trem straight from the factory with Slinky 9's, just the way Luke likes it. I like it that way although it sucks to tune up after breaking a string.

 

[cheesey]

from pos 1 thru 5 what is the p/u configuration . Blues Saraceno had some fine single coil tone from his LIII HH demo.

 

[kimonostereo]

from pos 1 thru 5 what is the p/u configuration . Blues Saraceno had some fine single coil tone from his LIII HH demo.

As far as I can tell, it's the same as the Al HH

1= Neck humbucker
2= Bridge and Neck split inner coils in parallel
3= Bridge and Neck in series
4= Bridge and Neck split outer coils in parallel
5= Bridge humbucker

See also this diagram
http://www.music-man.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&task=download&id=25

I'd love to be able to just split the coils to get single coil sound in position 1 & 5 but haven't looked to see if it's possible.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Kimono, great detail shots under the hood! I'm really digging the L3, not sure what I should unload in order to pick one up...

 

[kimonostereo]

Kimono, great detail shots under the hood! I'm really digging the L3, not sure what I should unload in order to pick one up...

I might sell my Al HH or trade for an Al S/S/S. I already have an EVH and Axis. With the LIII I think I have the best humbucker tones. Need a strat replacement.

I kinda wish EBMM made a Al S/S/S with rosewood neck!

 

[Tomulator]

Just got my Luke III in black...HSS.

In a word...STUNNING!

Literally almost brought tears to my eyes when I first plugged it into my Mesa Mark V...thanks EBMM!!!

 

[Fusionman]

Does the boost have adjustable gain or does it just bump the signal to the limit of its dbs?

 

[French Kiss]

I'm jealous ...

 

[look_at_her]

Does the boost have adjustable gain or does it just bump the signal to the limit of its dbs?

Yes,you can adjust the boost-there is a pot in preamp section that does the trick.
Have a minute?Check out posts #1 (Kimono photos)and # 20 (BP explanation).

 

[RocketRalf]

Just got my Luke III in black...HSS.

In a word...STUNNING!

Literally almost brought tears to my eyes when I first plugged it into my Mesa Mark V...thanks EBMM!!!

Post some sound clips/youtube please!

 

[dannymusic]

Kimono, great detail shots under the hood! I'm really digging the L3, not sure what I should unload in order to pick one up...

sell dannymusic the LUKE dargie 1 piezo ya dork!!