The Musicman Luke 111 is an updated version of the best selling Luke, with a few very desirable tweaks - In many ways the greatest asset of the Luke is that the guitar you can buy for £1799, is the exact same guitar that Lukather himself uses - He has stated on many occasions that he can walk into a store, pick-up a Luke and gig it straight from the shelve - So all you need is talent and the rest is in there just waiting for you to coax out that tone and those licks !!!!!!!

The major tweaks to the Luke 111, compared to the original Luke is a slightly larger body - approx 3% larger - Then we have a solid rosewood fingerboard and neck, along with a new set of passive DiMarzio designed pick-ups, along with a 12db boost available as a push/push option on the tone pot - The rosewood neck effectively retains the existing Luke profile, so with a 1 5/8" wide top nut, it is very much in the vintage Strat territory - The 12" fingerboard radius and a set of 22 wide/low profile frets ensures a very fluid playing action that allows for effortless string bending - The magic of a rosewood neck/fingerboard is feel and tone - It instantly feels comfortable and played in from day one - Additionally it supplies more texture, soul, emotion and warmth to the overall tone - It is remarkble that Musicman can deliver this build quality and features for well under 2 grand - Currently strung and set-up with a set of 9'.s, I dare say to Steve's own personal spec, but it is not a problem for us to adjust the set-up to 10's if required

The next tweak is to the pick-ups - It is very hard to knock EMG pick-ups, as found on the original Luke, especially when you consider what Steve has achieved with this combination - Likewise Dave Gilmour has used them on many occasions, but as an overview, they work very well in the hands of serious rock players, like Zakk Wylde, Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, to name a few - So I, for one, was delighted to find out about the Luke 111 was supplied with a set of custom voiced passive DiMarzio pick-ups - I just think they sound more natural and warm, especially on cleaner amp settings, so with the combination of the rosewood neck, this guitar is loaded with soul and emotion

The two humbucking option might lead you into thinking that you only had access to the 3 regular voices - However the 5 way switch delivers 2 excellent single coil flavoured tones on position 2 and 4 - These are very useful and certainly not the thin weedy voices found on many coil tapped humbuckers - A neck humbucker on a bolt-on neck, Strat based guitar, ensures a fatter tone than a regular Strat neck pick-up, yet for more snap and clarity than can be found a LP humbucker based guitar - Hence smooth warm and crisp, plus very responsive, so think SRV and Hendrix with more body and depth - The bridge humbucker has enough body, depth, punch and bite to drive the amp into crunch and lead mode, but retains its musical warmth throughout - Highs can cut but they don't rip your head off - On both hi-gain or more subtle rock overdriven amp settings, the taper of the pots allow you to trim the volume and tone for a softer voice and even clean up your sound, as required - Hence the guitar will respond to your emotional control

12db boost - And you thought that was the end of it - Now push in the tone pot to activate the 12db boost and push it in again to turn it off - Musicman have worked long and hard on this with Steve and the results are excellent - It is very very transparent, so when you turn it on/off the guitar still retains all its tonal qualities, just now with a boost - Just like having a good boost pedal on the floor - It works well on clean amp settings and if you set it up correctly with your amp, it will just boost the tone without sending it into overdrive - However set-up your amp on the edge of overdrive, or indeed with a subtle rock overdrive and the 12db boost will lift the guitar into the next level - Yet again the taper of the pots still allows you to dial in/out various levels of gain, as and when required - All in all a very versatile package that is transparent and responds to you and your requirements - As you can hear on various recordings by the great man himself can, from serious hi-gain rock, to blues/rock, classic blues, hot country, funk, disco and even chilled out jazz, either way the Luke 111 will be there to help you through it all

Regular spec is as follows :-
alder body
25.5" scale length
Schaller locking tuners
5 bolt neck join with sculptured access
Fully screened control cavity
Musicman 2 point fulcrum trem with vintage style steel saddles
Includes deluxe Musicman case

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Every guitar in stock at Guitars4You has been personally selected, inspected and approved by me, with particular attention paid to the set-up and playing performance - Every sale, phone call, mail order transaction or e-mail is handled my me - Mark Hopkin, the owner, Managing Director, cleaner and coffee maker (Jo, my wife helps with the coffee) - A 35 year journey has fuelled my knowledge, experience, love, devotion and passion for exceptionally fine guitars - This reflects in every aspect of our business

I have no desire to run an Amazon style 'click to buy' guitar shop, that lacks any soul or passion, or indeed to fill a showroom with a selection of dirty, shop soiled or dusty guitars that are in need of a set-up