Question Wiring and fret recommendations for Luke II

[__TX__]

Looking for some advice on taking out the EMGs and going with passives for my Luke II. I have a Fred and 2 Cruisers from Dimarzio picked out, but need advice on pots and switches. Would 250K or 500K be better? I'm going to do a treble bleed, too. What's your favorite 5 way switch? I'm also going to refret it, and want to go slightly bigger and stainless, if anyone has any advice on that. Thanks in advance!

 

[NickNihil]

Don’t know about frets but you’re most likely going to be best off using 500k pots with humbuckers (with a couple exceptions). As far as pickups, have you looked into the Dimarzio Transitions? Those are Lukather’s passive sig pickups that come on L3’s. Haven’t played them myself but they sound killer in video demos.

 

[DrKev]

Looking for some advice on taking out the EMGs and going with passives for my Luke II. I have a Fred and 2 Cruisers from Dimarzio picked out, but need advice on pots and switches. Would 250K or 500K be better? I'm going to do a treble bleed, too. What's your favorite 5 way switch? I'm also going to refret it, and want to go slightly bigger and stainless, if anyone has any advice on that. Thanks in advance!

I would go with 500K and add a parallel resistor to the switch so the humbucker sees the two 500K it prefers and the single coils will see the resistance as if they have 250K pots.

As far as pickups, have you looked into the Dimarzio Transitions? Those are Lukather’s passive sig pickups that come on L3’s. Haven’t played them myself but they sound killer in video demos.

Luke used the Transitions (and a version of the Injector noiseless singles) from 2012 until 2020 when he switched to Music Man designed Humbuckers and the single coils from the Cutlass. And the L4 humbuckers are not the same as on the LIII.

 

[beej]

Hard to comment on pickups as it's so subjective ... but I will. Personally I prefer lower output singles and a medium output bridge, so I would probably consider a set of Areas for the singles if I was going noiseless. (I don't love the Cruisers ... they work for Andy Timmons but I find they don't have a lot of character.) And yeah- if your bridge needs 500k pots (not all of them do), then go with 500k pots and the resistor trick.

Fret size is also personal preference. MM uses 0.047" x 0.104" ("Medium Jumbo") for stainless on many of their instruments. I went with that when I refretted my Lukes and am quite happy.

 

[Sweat]

Every one is different would never change the EMG pups, but frets well stainless medium for me

 

[beej]

Those EMGs are pretty great. I had a Luke II for years and liked them.

 

[__TX__]

thanks, y'all. yeah, the EMGs are good for some things. I don't HATE them.. but to me they don't sound as.. open? as they could be. And yes, the Transitions sound sooo good. I would go with them if it was a H/H guitar. I just don't like the Injectors from what I see on demos. I mean, I wasn't really into the Lukes till i got this one, I was looking for an Axis Super Sport, but I get a good deal on this and I love it. I thought the Axis neck was the best i'd ever played, but turns out i like the Luke II's better. It just really needs frets and I just want some pickups with a little more personality. Maybe I'll get a Transition bridge and the 2 Cruisers. Wonder if MM would sell me a pre-wired harness with the pots and boost circuit built in, since it's already got a 9V cavity in it.

 

[beej]

Fwiw, I recently bought a second hand set of Cutlass HT (SSS) pickups (including preamp/boost PCB) on Reverb ... so if you keep an eye open you might be able to find the boost circuit used. The singles are the same ones in the Luke 4.

 

[Vito Porkleone]

Hard to comment on pickups as it's so subjective ... but I will. Personally I prefer lower output singles and a medium output bridge, so I would probably consider a set of Areas for the singles if I was going noiseless. (I don't love the Cruisers ... they work for Andy Timmons but I find they don't have a lot of character.) And yeah- if your bridge needs 500k pots (not all of them do), then go with 500k pots and the resistor trick.

Fret size is also personal preference. MM uses 0.047" x 0.104" ("Medium Jumbo") for stainless on many of their instruments. I went with that when I refretted my Lukes and am quite happy.

I'll second the suggestion on the Area pickups. Really nice in my alder strat.