👕 Get New Ernie Ball Merch Now!
  • Ernie Ball
  • Music Man
  • Sterling by Music Man
  • Security notice: Ernie Ball staff will never send you a direct message about a prize or giveaway, and will never ask you to click a link to "claim" anything.
    If you receive a message like that - even from an account whose name looks official - do not click the link. Please report it using the Report link on the message so the moderators can act. A scam campaign impersonating admin accounts was blocked on 29 July 2026; those accounts are banned and their messages have been deleted.
Bongo 2026 Collection

Hello...thinking about buying a Luke

I

imaguest

New member
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
4
I can't really find alot of info on the Lukes out there, so I thought I'd try the EB forum.
I recently played one the other week and liked it very much. The body was comfortable, and the neck/playability was superb. However, it was set up with 9's and only had 2 springs on the trem so it was a bit slinky to me. I would end up going with 10's and probably at least 3 springs. Do you think this would drastically (in a bad way) affect the playability?
The only other potential concern that I have is the pups. I've had EMGs before in the past and didn't really mind them, but most of the stuff I play nowdays is rock/funk/R&B (as opposed to metal when I used them) and I'm afraid that once I'm in a live setting I won't dig them as much.

Anyway....any information that you guys can share would be of great help to me.

Thanks in advanced.
 
imaguest said:
I can't really find alot of info on the Lukes out there, so I thought I'd try the EB forum.
I recently played one the other week and liked it very much. The body was comfortable, and the neck/playability was superb. However, it was set up with 9's and only had 2 springs on the trem so it was a bit slinky to me. I would end up going with 10's and probably at least 3 springs. Do you think this would drastically (in a bad way) affect the playability?
The only other potential concern that I have is the pups. I've had EMGs before in the past and didn't really mind them, but most of the stuff I play nowdays is rock/funk/R&B (as opposed to metal when I used them) and I'm afraid that once I'm in a live setting I won't dig them as much.

Anyway....any information that you guys can share would be of great help to me.

Thanks in advanced.
Click to expand...

It will be a bit stiffer with 10s and 3 springs, but it won't be a huge differance. As for the EMGs, EMGs are great for all styles of music. I played in a soul/funk band for 2 years and used only EMG singlecoils and hade the best clean sound you could think about. I still have a great clean sound actually :D They also sound very good on distorted sounds too.
 
Don't be turned off by the Luke's pickups or equate EMGs with metal. The single coil pickups in the Luke will work well for R&B and rock and funk. The humbucker is the fatter sounding 85 and not the thinner sounding 81 used by Kirk Hammett and Zakk Wylde.

Steve Lukather has been using EMGs for over 25 years now. Check out Toto's catalog to hear the variety of musical styles Luke has been able to achieve with EMG. You will be amazed. (Of course, some of that amazement will just be from Luke's playing and not from the guitar itself. :D )
 
Read all the Luke reviews in the above sticky section... single coil EMG's are very different then EMG Humbuckers... a totally different beast all together ...
 
Was Luke using EMGs during the recording sessions for "Thriller" or any of his other hit pop work during the 1980's? If he was, well...that's not a bad sound for R&B, is it?
 
i played a Luke for the first time ever a few weeks back and was blown away buy how nice all the settings sounded when playing clean.

I love it.

+ like the others said: Luke's played all sorts of styles w/ that config. thats the best proof or example of how versetile this guitar is.
 
I have always equated EMGS with a nice clean sound---a buddy had a strat with them in it and we used it all the time for recording. When cutting tracks it always seemed to cut right through the mix. Active p/us are definitely a hi-fi type of sound. I find the p/u selection on the Luke to be nice and balanced from p/u to p/u. Also----remember--- the Luke has a pronounced V to the neck the only other neck I can remember havin as pronounced of a V neck was the Jimi Vaughn str**.
It is definitely different from the other Ball necks. The Luke would have no prob doin r&b type stuff. I would say it has an exceptional clean sound on all the p/u combos.
 
Last edited:
The EMGs in the Luke are very tonally balanced- you get good volume across all the frequencies, rather than notches in any specific frequency. They've gotten a bad rap as being "sterile" but they sound as good as they're eq'd - just change your amp settings to suit. Personally I think they're awesome pickups and pretty darn versatile.
 
xactly Beej----thats what I meant by "hi-fi"----they are very balanced. Most p/us are notched or boosted big time in certain ranges to achieve a certain effect. The EMGs are flatter and respond to EQing much better.
 
wylde uses an 85 in the neck :p

In anycase, EMGs RULE for everything as everyobe's said. the 85 ans the single coils in the luke are AWSOME! IMO!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Classic Rock N Roll Slinky
Back
Top