OLP Luke?

[jay112]

i was wondering if anyone had had a chance to try one out? no one around me stocks them, so am wondering how you guys find them? ive read reviews, some like the pickups, some dont, some think it feels great, some find it feels cheap. anyone had hands on experience?

 

im looking to find out if it is versatile and can play a number of different styles well, ie. rock, metal, blues, funk, jazz, pop etc etc etc. i ask this because Luke is one of the most versatile guitarists around and surely his signature guitar must be too? ive played the MusicMan Luke, and it was awesome, but ball-breakingly expensive, how does the OLP stand up?

 

cheers guys

[DenverDave]

I have seen a good number of the OLP 'Luke' guitars around here. I have played a couple and they seem to be a solid guitars for the money. But they do not in any way compare to the MM Luke. I didn't play long enough to really test the pickups, but they didn't seem bad to me at all....

[jay112]

thanks man, what sort of stuff did you play through it in your breif experience? how did it do in comparison to other guitars (perhaps from your own personal collection)?

 

cheers

[ashasha]

I've got one of the Axis style copies and I have to say that I was impressed overall. It needed some fret work, but other than that it was the best sub-$300 guitar I've ever played. The stock pickups sound incredible and are extremely versatile. The bridge is hot without sounding brittle, the neck is warm without sounding like mud and the middle position almost sounds like a single coil to be honest. The middle with a nice clean sound is awesome.

 

I don't know how different the pickups are, but even if they are different, the quality was impressive to me. I know that there was a dude a few months ago looking for a replacement set of the originals. He had swapped them for something more expensive, sold off the originals and regretted it a lot.

 

I own two OLP products; the guitar and a bass and both are solid. Fit and finish is where the corners are cut at this price line, but the materials were a lot better than I expected. A little tweaking and TLC really brought them around to outstanding instruments. I don't think that the Luke would be too far off the mark, though it isn't going to be the same as the real thing, just a close fascimile. For about 1/5-1/10th the price of the real deal it is about 3/4 of the real deal IMHO.

[Mister Zero]

I used to own an OLP Luke. The pickups are generic actives. Not much quack from the singles, but overall the guitar is quite quiet. The bridge is a two-post design and it is very stable. The best thing about the guitar for me was the very severe V neck, which was very comfy for playing over a long period of time.

 

If I were to pick up another one, I'd definitely replace the pickups.

 

BTW I used mine for blues, classic rock, and some old-school metal (think Priest, Maiden).

[jay112]

cheers for that mate, i know its not going to be a world beater at the price and cant expect it to be awesome all across the board. its good to know that the pickups arent the best, but good to know they are very quiet too.

 

i was a little confused with the "2 point fulcrum trem". im very familiar with floyd rose's etc, is the bridge on the luke floating?

 

thanks man

[randombastage]

I think the Luke must be floating because as I recall he often grabs the rear edge of the tremelo, the part pointing to the rear strap button so he can push or pull to get the pitch to go up or down...ie; he pushes down to raise pitch and pulls up to drop the pitch. I think I even saw a Luke with a short arm pointing backwards to facilitate that style of use.

 

I bought the Luke EMG loaded pickguard and put it on my made in mexico strat and it is one very versatile guitar now. It's the only way you can get the pickups sold on the Luke without buying the guitar....just another option if you like Stratocasters.

[jay112]

thats gorgeous:eek:

 

but expensive

 

i think i like the sound of the OLP, with a view to upgrading it at a later point...

 

[vexed73]

I had one when they first came out. Great guitar for the money. I sanded the neck down and oil and wax finished it and I also put the EMG lukather set in. The stock pickups are ok but not as good as the EMGs. Ialso lucked out and found an actual EBMM bridge and put it on. The original bridge was fine however. The beidge is like a strats you can either leave it flat on the body for down only or set it up for a little bit up pull. I also put locking tuners on it and after all that it was a very very fine instrument!