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Luke III: Transitions/roasted maple VS EBMMs/rosewood

ruger9

ruger9

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I'm 90% going to be buying a Luke III very soon.

It's either going to be a new Fuschia Sparkle (EBMM pickups and rosewood neck), or a used Luke III that has Transitions and a roasted maple neck.

I can say this:
-in the videos I've heard of Luke playing both, in both live clips and demos, I feel like I can hear a difference in the pickups and I like the transitions better. But maybe that's not a fair comparison, using YouTube videos... the Transitions sound richer and clearer to me? The EBMMs sound hotter and brighter?

Then: the neck??? the roasted maple looks amazing... I've always wanted a roasted maple neck. But I soooo love the Fuschia....
 
beej

beej

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HH or HSS?

I'm a big fan of the Transition humbuckers. But the MM single coils are absolutely fantastic :)
 
beej

beej

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I can't speak for others, but I'd be perfectly happy with either set of humbuckers (with a preference toward the Transitions). Whereas I'd prefer the MM pickups for HSS.

That said, take the guitar that floats your boat :)
 
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Paulg2uk

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Fuchsia sparkle has a roasted maple neck and a rosewood board as well! The newer L3's and ones with the transition pickups in have always had a roasted maple neck and a rosewood board.

Personally I prefer the Music Man pickups compared to the transitions. I find them brighter and and more open sounding compared to the Dimarzios.
 
ruger9

ruger9

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Yeah... I guess I could have said rosewood fingerboard...
 
msquared

msquared

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I had a Luke III with a rosewood neck/board and a mahogany body with flame maple cap. It came with Transitions and it was a very dark guitar. I think if I'd had a super bright amp it would have eventually worked out but I didn't really love the sound of it. They may have worked better with different woods.

I put Fishman Fluence Classics into it and it was amazing after that.
 
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Paulg2uk

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ruger9 said:
UPDATE:

The seller claims they are Transitions, but I just got verification from MM that these guitars shipped with EBMMs, so the seller is incorrect. That changes things for me. Here's a pic:

View attachment 41043
Click to expand...
Very nice! I actually forgot about that model having a maple board as well. Sorry my mistake!
 
GWDavis28

GWDavis28

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Remove the matching head stock and slap a rosewood or ebony fret board on that and that would be out of this world!!!!

Great snag, love that color!!!! I have been dying for a blue guitar for decades, never found the right one, yet. Blue Rocks right PeteD!!!

Glenn |B)
 
Adder

Adder

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ruger9 said:
I'm 90% going to be buying a Luke III very soon.

It's either going to be a new Fuschia Sparkle (EBMM pickups and rosewood neck), or a used Luke III that has Transitions and a roasted maple neck.

I can say this:
-in the videos I've heard of Luke playing both, in both live clips and demos, I feel like I can hear a difference in the pickups and I like the transitions better. But maybe that's not a fair comparison, using YouTube videos... the Transitions sound richer and clearer to me? The EBMMs sound hotter and brighter?

Then: the neck??? the roasted maple looks amazing... I've always wanted a roasted maple neck. But I soooo love the Fuschia....
Click to expand...
So all this talk between the MM and the Transitions - I gues you can swap out the MM with transitions if you want? they are about $100 each? I do find the MM to be bright and in your face - nothing wrong but maybe the Transitions would be less aggressive? Anyone done a swap out?
 
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Paulg2uk

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Adder said:
So all this talk between the MM and the Transitions - I gues you can swap out the MM with transitions if you want? they are about $100 each? I do find the MM to be bright and in your face - nothing wrong but maybe the Transitions would be less aggressive? Anyone done a swap out?
Click to expand...
I did about a year back, I swapped out the transitions in my Boysenberry Burst for the MM's. I didn't really like them in that guitar and much preferred the transitions.

In my newer L3's I prefer the MM 's though crazy I know lol. I think it might have been the body wood's in those models that was making it sound that way. Or it could have been because the boysenberry was an HS config and all my others are HSS and are wired in parallel on position 2 where as on the HS configs are wired in series. I think that's correct anyway.

I don't find the rosewood boards dark at all, you still get a really nice bright clean sound from the them.

Here's some pics of mine just in case you guys want to take a look. What am I saying? if course you do lol. I no longer own the Boysenberry unfortunately I should've kept that one! I did buy a Luscious Green Quilt about a year back but I've decided to sell that one as well and keep the Sunburst which is my main gigging guitar and the Fuchsia which is really nice too!

IMG_0130.jpeg

IMG_0134.jpeg

IMG_0145.jpeg
 
Adder

Adder

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Man! they look stunning!
Yes, I was talking about a whole rosewood neck not just the fretboard - I heard someone at Andertons metioning it was darker.
Interesting about the later Lukes being better with MM pups - EB obviosly match them to the body / guitar frequency curves I guess. Can you buy MM pups from ernie ball?
Im really loving the LukeIII its just Killer!

Sorry I keep editing this post but I see that depending on the pickups the router cut outs where the pickups go has changed to a more squared off shape to allow the MM pickups mounting lugs to fit - just an observation
 
Last edited:
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Paulg2uk

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Sep 25, 2015
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Adder said:
Man! they look stunning!
Yes, I was talking about a whole rosewood neck not just the fretboard - I heard someone at Andertons metioning it was darker.
Interesting about the later Lukes being better with MM pups - EB obviosly match them to the body / guitar frequency curves I guess. Can you buy MM pups from ernie ball?
Im really loving the LukeIII its just Killer!

Sorry I keep editing this post but I see that depending on the pickups the router cut outs where the pickups go has changed to a more squared off shape to allow the MM pickups mounting lugs to fit - just an observation
Click to expand...
Yeah that's probably right with them sounding a little darker with the rosewood necks. Sorry I didn't read your post properly and thought you meant the fretboard.

You should be able to buy the pickups from Music Man. I'm from the UK and had to go through my distributor. There's some new Lukes on the way I reckon, There's been a few pics of Steve playing some prototype models on tour recently and the namm show isn't far off now so I think we may see EB announce them very soon!
 
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