Need help deciding on a guitar

[BloxBass]

Hi everyone,
I've played bass for a long time and love my big al 5. Recently I've been getting more into guitar and want to get a nice EBMM. The guitar that I really have my eye on is that Silhouette Gold Roller. Unfortunately they are very hard to find and in reality it's probably a bit out of my price range. I thought that I was sold on the Silhouette. Not sure whether to go HSS or HSH, but prob HSS as the latter might be too much pickup to get in the way. I think that I would prefer a hard tail as I've heard nothing but trouble about tremelo setups from my guitar playing buds. Any input on the tremelo and the guitars ability to keep in tune with it would be appreciated. But now I'm really liking the looks of the the Luke III, and have been hearing a lot of positive feedback about the guitar from the internet.
I know that it's all subjective but I would love any input from someone who has played both what the notable differences between those models are. From what I've gathered the Luke has a bit smaller V shaped neck and the silhouette is a larger U shaped neck. My buddy has an axis, so if someone could compare the necks to the axis that would be awesome. It sounds like the silhouette might be slightly brighter/classic sound compared the the Luke III more "hi-fi" sound.
I play mostly blues, jazzy, alternative stuff, but still like to rock out. Im not a shredder by any means though and I'm not looking for a metal axe. Im not exactly huge and my fingers aren't that long. I like to play fingerstyle a lot thanks to my bass experience.
Hopefully I got my question through and didn't just sound like a confused fool. I would go down and play them both if that was an option, but unfortunately there just aren't any musicman instruments where I live so I'm forced to order online. Luckily I cant really go wrong, I know that musicman is quality, but nonetheless thats alot of money to spend on a guitar and I want the best I can get. So any input on the Silhouette, (Gold Roller), or Luke III is greatly appreciated.
-Thanks!

 

[Spudmurphy]

Hi Bloxbass.
You sound like you know exactly what you want.
The Silo is a great guitar and the neck profile on the Silo and the axis and the Albert Lee for that matter is not to disimilar.
When I was in the market for an Albert Lee back in 2005 I tried a Luke and didn't like the pronounced V and I'm not a big fan of floating trems either. I find the stock trems on the Silo/Albert to be VERY stable. There are no string trees to cause binding problems and the locking tuners really make a difference. Don't forget the EB trems pivot on Two posts whereas the Fender type trem does not. So please don't listen too much to your non EB guitar playing buddies - their trems are like the equiv of driving a model T lol.
My fingers are not too long either and I find the Silo (and AL) no problems at all. Infact my technique, particularly my vibrato when bending up has improved a hell of a lot.

Maybe consider getting a PIEZO too - that will blow yer buddies minds when you play fingerstyle!!

The Silo (and Al) will easily handle your genres of music in HsH HSS or even SSS formats.

(Oh, did I mention the Al?)

 

[Jack FFR1846]

I'm going to add to what Spud says and tell you that the vintage trem can be set up with the springs pulled tight so you essentially have a hard tail. That's exactly what I do with all my Music Man guitars. They all have trems.....and I never use the trem.

 

[JasonT]

Here's my take:

The silo gold roller has:

- more traditional c-shape neck with 10" radius
- 24 frets
- mini-buckers
- mahogany body with maple neck and fretboard
- very lightweight

the LIII has:

- soft v-shape neck with 12" radius
- 22 frets
- HH or S/S/H passive pups
- alder body with all rosewood neck
- average EBMM weight (in some instances maybe a little heavy for an EBMM)

In playing a gold roller (it was Pete DuBaldo's Dargie so it had an ebony board), it was a strong rock machine with pups that provide some honk. Very mid-rangy and distinct character to the tone. That's not to say it wouldn't be good at blues or jazzy stuff, but that's not what I like to play so I didn't check that out for that. I found the neck shape and radius to be comfortable (I don't like super thin necks and this wasn't) and the weight was very comfortable. I felt like playing that guitar for 3 sets a night would be a breeze.

I have an LIII with the HH electronics. Personally, I like the LIII a lot. I love the all rosewood neck - both the feel and tone. It tends to darken the tone a little but still remain clear and not muddy. The soft v-shape is not too hard to get used to. I really like the variety of tones in the 5-way with the two 'buckers. I spend most time on the bridge bucker with distortion and clean up using positions 2 or 4. The LIII has a control that eliminates the typical drop off when splitting coils so all switching positions can maintain the same volume. It also has a clean volume boost push-push tone pot, which is a great feature. My LIII is a little heavier than my other EBMM guitars, but not so heavy that it's a distraction or an issue.

I can't tell you what you should get, but hopefully, this helps you decide what's more important to you.

 

[Rufedges]

I have a Silohouette Special HSS with trem.........I don't use the trem, had the shop set it up like a hard-tail, and it is as stable as my Axis SS hardtail. I did change out the pups on my guitar, but it does everything for me, blues, pop, and rock.
You will prolbably have a hard time finding a hard-tail Silo Special, just an FYI, unless you find a used on on Ebay, or get one ordered through Pete Dubaldo, which could take anywhere from a few months to maybe 7 or 8 months from order to be in your hands.

I'm going to add to what Spud says and tell you that the vintage trem can be set up with the springs pulled tight so you essentially have a hard tail. That's exactly what I do with all my Music Man guitars. They all have trems.....and I never use the trem.

 

[BloxBass]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm actually leaning toward the HH Luke III in olive gold now. I love that color and from what sound clips and vids I've seen those pickups sound awesome and it's not a super high gain metal sound from what I can tell, which I was initially worried about. That olive gold is just too cool. Plus hey, I can always pickup a SSS silhouette down the road for that strat (but better) like twang. Im not positive about the V neck yet just because I haven't played one but from what I can tell it's not all that pronounced on the L3 anyways, who knows it might be actually easier to play than the traditional curve anyways.
So if anyone has played the LIII and wants to help coax me let me know what you think about that Luke!

 

[Jack FFR1846]

Another thing that might help. Call DuBaldo's and speak with Pete. Tell him what you're looking for in a guitar. He's played everything. Between him and Nick, they take every Music Man out and play them to double check that everything is good. When I bought my Axis there, it was delivery day and they went through a stack of guitars, unboxing, trying them and putting them through their paces, then reboxing and sending out. I know Pete has a number of youtube vids demoing some guitars. Maybe he can point to some of those to help you out.

He checked out my Al which had come to him used and his "ok" on it was enough for me.