Question Does Steve Lukather play the Luke III?

[msquared]

Having owned a LIII it would be unbelievable to me that he'd pick something over that guitar. I only sold mine because I couldn't make the V neck work but I still miss it. As he said in his (very clearly not ghost written) autobiography: Ernie Ball makes the best guitars in the business!

 

[DrKev]

I don't think it was such a bad question Does Steve play all of his models ? particularly the solid rosewood neck [ was that his idea or EB'S? ] I think where the marketing comes in is EBMM changing the finishes and getting Steve to play those so people can see them. I guess offering limited finishes is working for them but I wish they'd offer the black sparkle!

I am NOT a historian, so with the proviso of "If I recall correctly..."

The all-rosewood neck idea was initially EBMMs idea. What became the 'True Gold' Luke II limited edition PDN (premier dealer network) run was the result of one-off guitars EBMM made as gifts. Steve Morse got one too and you can see Luke and Morse playing those guitars during the 2009 Guitar Center sessions.

That guitar became a favorite of Luke's for many years. It's the guitar on the cover of his 2010 "All's Well That Ends Well" album and features heavily in the "making of the album" videos by Nigel Dick. 2010 is also when the HH Albert Lee guitar debuted, also with an all-rosewood neck. EBMM were getting so many requests from players and dealers (and the forum members) for that Luke guitar that it became the first PDN run in 2011. It was made with the EMG-X pickups of the original, even slightly 'incorrectly' wired, just the way Lukather liked it. Music Man make the signature guitars the way artists actually want them and that's all. No signature guitar goes into production with something the artist doesn't want. Example: For many years if John Petrucci changed his choice of string gauge, the production guitars changed to match too.

So, when the LIII came out in 2012 it initially came with an all-rosewood neck, because that was still Lukather's preference at the time. Lukather eventually changed to roasted maple as his preference and so the LIIIs switched in 2013(?).

Similarly with colors, to the best of my knowledge, EBMM trial new colors to their signature artists, the artist select what they like, and that's what gets put into production. First year of production of the StV guitar, Annie Clarke mixed the first batch of Vincent Blue paint herself and they used that 'recipe' for production of that color afterwards.

There was a time when Music Man offered over a dozen colors and multiple other options on all instruments. Remember, Music Man have alway made what dealers/customer pre-order, production starts when the minimum order quantity is met. There is no warehouse of pre-made Music Man guitars waiting to be sold. In time as production increased and certain models and colors took the lion's share of production, it became clear that offering such a large number of options only increased complexity and delivery time with no benefit. Black Sparkle will probably only be offered again if Lukather wants it.