For those interested in changing their Luke II EMG's to passive...

[coughlinkelly]

Congrats Max. I'm so dying to do this mod but I am super disappointed that I can't get the single coils that are in the HSS Luke III guitars. I love the Transitions and I want the bridge and both single coils to be Transition ones. I can't even imagine how awesome it would be to have those pickups in a BFR koa Luke II. Needs to be something I can do and until then I'm going to just be disappointed. Come on Dimarzio just take my money already! If there is anyone out there that would like to sell their single coil Transitions to me, please let me know. It is a done deal. I hate that Dimarzio won't sell them and I find it strange honestly. Dimarzio just needs to sell me a couple single coil Transitions and I'll install them in my Luke II, then I'll make a video praising the hell out of them. Getting desperate here.

I'm in the same boat...want to ditch the awful EMG's and considering my options. Any updates?

 

[garfitz]

Put injector neck, area 67 middle and AT1 into my Luke 2. I have to say the single coils are very impressive. The injector neck takes a lot of gain with no mud.
However the AT1 has made it very dark. Was thinking to just put in the transition bridge instead.
Is there anyway to make/install/mod this guitar to have the onboard boost etc that the luke 3 has?? I'm left handed and they don't make the Luke 3 left handed

 

[fusionid]

adding a boost on board is not that important IMHO. I should know I installed one in a DIY guitar due to the luke III. However what I really miss is the buffer bringing the coil tapped sounds to the same level as the full hums. that's impossible to get.
So I ended up running the boost at 3 to 4db boost just to make the coiltapped sounds match the hummies.

 

[mr.b]

Did you get the Dimarzios special ordered with EMG baseplates so you don't need to rout out the body of your L2? I'm on a similar journey with my L2 BFR and want to pup passive pups in but I don't want to hack up the body of it.

 

[vexed73]

Personally I like the EMG single coils better. I dont find the singles in the LIII that special. They sound good but there are other stacked singles I have liked better.
I would just get the transition bridge pickup any hum canceling single will do. If dimarzio says injector I would go with that with no worries.

 

[vexed73]

I worry the transitions without the EBMM preamp might not be as magical.

 

[mr.b]

Yeah I agree with this line of thought. I'm not interested in running a preamp into the L2. I just want to move away from active pups and want a balanced set of pickups with a low-medium output. I'd certainly be interested in the Cutlass singles that are in the L3 25th if EBMM made them available for order?

 

[big_herm]

Sorry to revive a really old thread but I’m in this position with my Luke II. I liked it a lot then I got a Luke III and haven’t even picked up my Luke II since then. I do like the finish on my Luke II a lot though (black sparkle with matching headstock). The EMGs are way too compressed for me and I have always preferred passive pickups. The thing with HSS guitars that I’ve always struggled with is matching the output to the humbucker. I usually put higher output singles in and a lower output bucker and that tends to work most of the time. For any other volume adjustments I can make patches to compensate.

I have my Luke II up for sale right now but if the pickup swap is simple then I would consider it.

 

[Rbg]

Look at the EMG retroactive, those are drop ins and upon my conversation with EMG people much more passive than SLV set.