My first Music Man guitar (Luke 3)

[Keno]

Bought myself an early christmas gift days before christmas and ended up with a Sunburst Luke III, all rosewood neck, HH. This is my first ever MM after playing 20+ years mainly Fender, G&L and Gibson and I must say I am quite impressed by this guitar. I rarely just pick up a guitar and feel comfortable with it immediately but this one felt great from the start. There seems to be quite a lot of knowledge on this forum so here are some questions from me;

1) The bridge was set fixed to the body, is that really the case when it ships from MM or is that something Guitar Center set up?

2) I set the bridge to float (two half tones) and adjusted the string height by adjusting the truss rod (only took one notch "down to compensate the higher string height) and then adjusted intonation. Is that the same way you guys would recommend setting that up?

3) I can easily feel the frets on my palm on my left hand while playing, almost like they are sticking out of the fretboard. Is that a common MM thing? I compared it to several electric guitars at home and none had the same feeling. Can't really compare to another MM guitar since I live in Europe and MMs are hard to find. It's not like I scratch my hand or anything but if I use my nail and drag it alongside the fretboard from 1st to last fret my nail gets stuck on the frets.

4) The guitar was sold as new and it looks and feels brand new so no complaints there but isn't it a bit weird it has been hanging on the wall att GC for two years?

Anyway, super happy with the guitar. I have custom shops from other brands and I can honestly say the build quality for the MM is just as good. The neck is amazing, the tremolo is second to none and usually not a big dimarzio fan but these pickups are just great. Gigging with it tonight, sorry for the long post.

 

[canuck6string]

I'll say welcome...but not to the addiction because apparently that's copyrighted by someone on the forum and I don't have a US nickel to spare.

My understanding is that the tremolo is set against the body at the factory. It's designed to be more stable and maintain tuning better than the floating tremolos.

I can't comment on adjusting the tremolo because I keep mine flat against the deck. However, coming from Stratocasters, I do find that I can 'feel' the frets as well. I attribute that to the smaller EBMM necks and larger frets than the Strats I owned.

 

[edhalen]

Before I can provide congrats and welcome we have a saying around here....no pics no guitar!!!

 

[RAIN27]

Welcome to the Ball Family

 

[xjbebop]

Congrats on a great instrument!
very briefly: the trem is normally set to float on the LIII, but you can set it where you want.
GC has been clearing out many fabulous guitars that just haven't sold over the last few years.
You likely got a case of fret sprout. It happens. Contact EBMM customer service...they will take care of you and your new baby....
A little extra time up front and that guitar will serve you well for a lifetime.

 

[Keno]

Thanks to everyone for replying. Sorry for the low quality pic but only have my iphone camera around. Put it next to a Les Paul. Hard to tell on that picture but the MM vintage sunburst is pretty damn nice.
Playing a instrumental soul/funk set tonight (elevator music with a twist) will see how she behaves, if it gets too boring I promise to make good use of the trem arm

 

[QuietSpike]

welcome to the cult...

unfortunately, your les paul is about to get played a lot les.... like mine.....

 

[JasonT]

Bought myself an early christmas gift days before christmas and ended up with a Sunburst Luke III, all rosewood neck, HH. This is my first ever MM after playing 20+ years mainly Fender, G&L and Gibson and I must say I am quite impressed by this guitar. I rarely just pick up a guitar and feel comfortable with it immediately but this one felt great from the start. There seems to be quite a lot of knowledge on this forum so here are some questions from me;

1) The bridge was set fixed to the body, is that really the case when it ships from MM or is that something Guitar Center set up?

2) I set the bridge to float (two half tones) and adjusted the string height by adjusting the truss rod (only took one notch "down to compensate the higher string height) and then adjusted intonation. Is that the same way you guys would recommend setting that up?

3) I can easily feel the frets on my palm on my left hand while playing, almost like they are sticking out of the fretboard. Is that a common MM thing? I compared it to several electric guitars at home and none had the same feeling. Can't really compare to another MM guitar since I live in Europe and MMs are hard to find. It's not like I scratch my hand or anything but if I use my nail and drag it alongside the fretboard from 1st to last fret my nail gets stuck on the frets.

4) The guitar was sold as new and it looks and feels brand new so no complaints there but isn't it a bit weird it has been hanging on the wall att GC for two years?

Anyway, super happy with the guitar. I have custom shops from other brands and I can honestly say the build quality for the MM is just as good. The neck is amazing, the tremolo is second to none and usually not a big dimarzio fan but these pickups are just great. Gigging with it tonight, sorry for the long post.

Congrats on a great axe! The bridge comes set to float from the factory but you can set it up how you like. It sounds as though you are experiencing some fret sprout. It can happen with guitars that have been hanging around in a store for awhile. The fretboard has likely shrunk a little due to lack of humidity. Search posts for fret sprout as here have been a number of threads about dealing with it.

Enjoy your new axe!

 

[Tollywood]

Welcome to the forum!

To cure fret sprout, just run a humidifier in the room with the guitar for a few days, or as long as needed until the frets are no longer picky.

To make the bridge float, you leave the posts the way they came, and you reduce the tension on the tremolo springs.

Good luck!

 

[Craiguitar]

The bridge comes set to float from the factory but you can set it up how you like.

Mine didn't! It came with the bridge flat to the body. Totally wrong. It should have been set to have 1.5 steps of upward movement on the g string. That's how Luke himself has it set. Before I could even play the guitar, I had to set the thing up. Really annoying.

 

[ksandvik]

Mine didn't! It came with the bridge flat to the body. Totally wrong. It should have been set to have 1.5 steps of upward movement on the g string. That's how Luke himself has it set. Before I could even play the guitar, I had to set the thing up. Really annoying.

Yes, that's definitely not the factory setup. Someone must have tinkered with it outside the factory.

 

[stu42]

Although adjusting the truss rod does affect the string height and may work for you, it's not really the best method. Generally speaking, the approach to adjusting the action on your guitar is:
1. Adjust the relief on the neck using the truss rod
2. Set the string height to either factory settings or whatever your preference is
3. Set the intonation.

Here's a good article that explains how to setup your guitar - from the Music Man guitar FAQ:
How do I set up my John Petrucci guitar?

Regarding how to setup the bridge for floating....you didn't mention what method you used to set the bridge to float so I thought I'd throw this out there....

On my Reflex, the tremolo bridge was also originally setup flat against the guitar and I too wanted it to float. I personally took the same approach as Tollie by simply reducing the tension on the tremolo springs - which is kind of the easy way out.

However, I don't think that's technically the "correct" approach as the bridge should be parallel to the body in its resting position. In that case it would be best to raise the entire bridge to the desired height by unscrewing the two bridge posts and then lowering each individual saddle to set each string to the proper height. It talks about this in the FAQ article but, if you don't have enough ability to lower the saddles you may have to use a blend of the two methods - unless there is a shim in the neck you can remove or make smaller...but that might be getting deeper than you may want to go on your own.

 

[DrKev]

On my Reflex, the tremolo bridge was also originally setup flat against the guitar and I too wanted it to float. I personally took the same approach as Tollie by simply reducing the tension on the tremolo springs - which is kind of the easy way out.

However, I don't think that's technically the "correct" approach as the bridge should be parallel to the body in its resting position.

I'll respectfully disagree. Remember, the angled floating bridge is the factory setting on the Luke model and also Fender's recommended setup for floating their bridges, vintage or modern. No only is the easier way to do it (because as you correctly describe, getting the string heights right with a parallel bridge can be tricky, unless of course the body is routed under the bridge, as is the case with floating Floyd Rose trems) but it performs just as well in terms of tuning stability.

 

[stu42]

Fair enough. I didn't know that was the factory setting on the Luke. I just assumed I was taking the easy way out because other guitars I've used with a floating bridge have the bridge setup parallel to the body. And, the instructions (that I linked to) for setting up the Petrucci model seem to describe a process that would keep the bridge parallel to the body.

Interesting...well, good to know that the way I used isn't really "cheating".

Thanks!!

 

[DrKev]

Not at all! Good enough for Luke and Jeff Beck, good enough for us!

 

[string]

Well mine was against the body and I wanted it to float, I raised the high fulcrum pin and the thing got all wonky, so I put it back. I guess no floater for Me. (probably need to take it to a EBMM dealer and get it set up proper?)