LUKE, GUITAR
A couple of years ago, Steve Lukather teamed up with => Music Man to design a signature guitar: The Luke.
Luke on the Luke: It's a really nice guitar, man. I really like it. It's very versatile, there
are no brand new innovations, it's just a guitar, a f**king lump of wood with strings and
pickups on it ! The feel is the most attractive part - the feel and the sound. And I'm using
it exclusively, I'm not using anything else [...]
My input was primarily the feel. Actually I had a lot of input. I worked very close with Dudley
Gimpbell and Sterling Ball - they've been friends of mine for a long time. Actually Dudley
used to work at Valley Arts and then they sold out to the Koreans and I completely lost interest,
and Biff, that's Stirling, Biff's his nickname, he's my best friend and he'd just made a guitar
for Ed (van Halen) and he wanted to make me a guitar. I said, Great! and it's actually doing
really well; it's actually sold about a thousand piece and that's pretty good for a signature
model. After all, it's not like I'm Steve Vai or somebody..." (Guitarist UK, september 1994)
From the Ernie Ball website:
"The Luke" was designed by Grammy award winner Steve Lukather of Toto and the Music Man® R&D team. Made of alder for superior resonance, the sleek new body is sculpted to provide the utmost in balance and comfort and the oil finished neck has a prominent "V" shaped profile.
Size: 123/16" wide, 13/4" thick, 367/16" long
Weight: 7 pounds, 7 ounces - varies slightly
BODY
Wood: Alder
Finish: High gloss polyester
Colors: Luke Blue
Bridge: Music Man® vintage tremolo
NECK
Scale: 251/2"
Radius: 12"
Headstock: Only 57/8" long
Frets: 22 - Low profile, wide
Width: 15/8" at nut, 23/16" at last fret
Wood: Selected maple with rosewood fingerboard
Finish: Gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend
Tuners: Schaller® M6-IND Locking
Truss Rod: Adjustable - no component or string removal
Attachment: 5 bolts - perfect alignment with no shifting.
Sculpted neck joint and flush mounted neck plate allow smooth access to higher frets
ELECTRONICS
Shielding: Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and aluminum lined control cover
Controls: 25K volume and tone-.10 uf tone capacitor
Switch: 5-way lever pickup selector
Pickups: Active electronics with easy access battery compartment
1 EMG® model 85 humbucking - bridge position
2 EMG® custom single coil