MUSIC MAN RELEASED its first Steve Lukather signature model — the Luke — back in 1994, and over the years the Luke model has evolved with various Luke II and Luke III models. To celebrate the Luke’s 30th anniversary, Music Man has introduced the Luke 4 30th anniversary model with an HSS pickup configuration similar to the original, plus new Luke 4 HH and SSS models. The 30th anniversary version is a hot-rodded super strat, but the SSS model we reviewed is more of a “superb” strat, based on the traditional triple-singlecoil Fifties standard solidbody that guitarists all know and love, but packed with a ton of high-performance upgrades, refinements and modifications.
The Luke 4 SSS has a figured roasted maple neck that has become a regular feature of Music Man guitars for a while now, made to specifications that include a 25.5- inch scale length, 12-inch radius and 1 5/8- inch nut width. The rosewood fingerboard sports 22 low profile, wide nickel frets. A new twist is that the alder body is roasted as well to provide the lighter weight and resonance of a vintage guitar that has naturally dried over several decades. The body is finished with high-gloss polyester in a selection of Scoville Red, Diesel Blue or Bareback (natural) color options, while the neck is protected by a gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend finish.
The newly designed Music Man HT single-coil pickups were developed using technology derived from the technology behind the creation of Ernie Ball’s Cobalt and M-Steel strings, and they are voiced to provide outstanding clarity at high output while maintaining body at lower volume levels. Controls consist of a five-way blade pickup selector and master tone and volume controls, the latter featuring a push/ push function that activates a built-in preamp boost circuit. Boost is set at the factory to +12dB, but a trim pot inside the control cavity allows users to adjust output between 0 and +20dB. Internal trim pots also enable adjustment of silent circuit’s hum reduction and the balance between the blade position 1/3/5 bridge, middle and neck single-coil settings and the 2/4 parallel bridge/middle and neck/middle settings.