New guy with question about Luke 3

[Rikster]

Hi all,

So I’ll get this out of the way first.... I’ve never owned or played a EBMM guitar in my 45 years of playing.... and.... Let the flaming begin .

However, I just ordered a Luke 3. I will try to post pics when it arrives. The guitar really is different than anything else I have. Read as much as I could find about this specific model and listened to videos of its tone. Granted it’s not the most ideal way of judging an instrument but they’re not easy to find. At best I was able to try a Sterling MM Axis which actually wasn’t bad for its price point. I understand the necks and frets are different
so it’s probably not indicative of how the Luke 3 is. I currently play PRS single cut 594’s and double cut DGT, Custom 24 and McCarty, all double humbuckers. From what I could tell from the photos of the actual guitar, the build quality looks impeccable. Read some posts about the neck/fret size and I’m hoping it’s not much of a concern. My apologies for not mentioning this earlier but this guitar has the HSS configuration. My question is about the pickups, specifically, are these passive pickups with a preamp? Similar to the EMG RetroActive? I noticed there is a battery compartment but I am not sure if that is for the pickups or the boost function. Any info or insights you all have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick

 

[beej]

The LIII uses passive pickups fed into an onboard preamp, with a boost. So yes, you need the battery to hear anything. But the preamp is low-draw on the battery. It's pretty great.

 

[tbonesullivan]

The LIII is a great guitar. I have an SSH that is currently in getting a fret dress. It's very versatile, and I think since the preamp is "on" when it's plugged in, that means you get the benefits of an active preamp at all times. This negates the capacitance of long guitar cables, which can degrade the signal.

They are passive pickups, and the SSH has noiseless single coils that match the bridge transition pickup well. Also there is a small compensating boost in the "notch" positions of the 5 way switch, so there is less volume drop.

 

[Rikster]

I had read that there are internal trim pots to adjust pickup volume. Hopefully this is on the Luke 3 and not just on previous Luke models.

Rick

 

[Magic Jason]

I suggest you set the boost trim pot to your liking, so you get the desired amount of boost when you want to kick in for a solo, a riff, or you want to play obnoxiously louder

BUT the most important, IMHO, is the "single coils permanent output level" trim because the singles in the luke III are fairly hot.

Set the trim to the minimum so you can have vintage-strat kinda sounds by rolling the volume down a bit (you won't lack dynamics thanks to great preamp) and even so, they will handle gain! Best of both worlds!

****!!! Why did I sell this guitar?

 

[Tollywood]

Welcome to the forum. The Luke III is an excellent choice. It's a very comfortable guitar. I hope you enjoy it.