When the Silver Sky hit the market, I called it a Strat Copy with a PRS headstock. Which it is. My very first impression was a negative one – it took John Mayer and PRS 2 years to make a strat copy with a reverse PRS headstock? And they’d “improved” the Strat? The Strat has been around since the 50’s, and copied more than any other guitar in history. Why did the market need this instrument?
I had a chance to sit down with one, finally. Obviously I’d never pay two grand for an electric guitar (see the website’s name,) but I love the Strat. WAS this guitar a “better” Strat?
The Good
I’ve never played a Strat that sustains like this guitar. It felt like it had a sustainer in it. It felt like a magic trick. It was crazy. Sustain on a guitar is important if you’re not playing metal. Metal guys crank the gain super high and get sustain regardless of the guitar they’re playing. But playing clean, you usually need a compressor to achieve what this guitar does, out of the box. It’s a-damn-mazing. This guitar also sounds great. It’s not exactly the Strat tone that I personally love, but it’s a really good sounding instrument. At around 2 grand, it’s inexpensive compared to the typical PRS.
The Bad
But it achieves that sustain by having a huge neck. It felt like playing my Gibson Les Paul 50’s Tribute. Big ass neck. That’s not a bad thing for some people, but I don’t like the big huge necks. I can tolerate them, but don’t prefer them. If you want a Strat with a big ass neck, this might be the guitar for you. But at two grand, there’s a lot of Strat copy competition out there, as well as some actual Fender Strats that are damn good guitars. This is all pretty subjective.
The Ugly
What isn’t subjective is that this instrument, to me, played about like a $1,200 American Strat. It played good, but not great. I’d compare it to the $800 range coming out of South Korea. I only put this as “ugly” because past 2k, I’d expect crazy good playability, like the Music Man JP models around that price range. Those are high precision instruments, built and set up perfectly. The playability of the Silver Sky reminded me of the playability of the affordable PRS S2 range, which runs in the $900 to $1,300 range. I think this is a $1,200 guitar. Meaning I think it’s a very good instrument, if you like big necks. I think the extra $800 – $1,000 is PRS marketing and John’s name, and also because they want to recover the R & D costs of nit picking every tiny detail John wanted, and also because they know that at around 2k, they’ll sell tons of these. It’s no secret that PRS marks up their instruments. I say that’s “ugly,” but really, it’s capitalism. I don’t look down my nose at PRS for marking stuff up and making lots of money. There are worse things. Some people make cancer-causing products for a living. PRS makes good to great guitars and they charge a premium. I love my S2. But I paid $500 for it, used. It could be worse. They could have sold this guitar for 4k. And people still would have bought it.
A lot of people hate this guitar, a lot of people love it. The fact is, it’s a great sounding guitar that sustains for days due to its uncomfortably large neck, and that’s subjective. There’s your summary of the Silver Sky. People who slam it need to actually play it first.
And as for John Mayer, personally, I think he’s amazing. He gets slammed for having a big ego and sleeping with lots of women, but somehow that was OK for all the rock stars we grew up with. It’s hypocritical. Jim Morrison is revered and he was an absolute asshole to everyone around him. The guys in Led Zeppelin used to burn groupies with cigarettes for fun. I’d say they’re the shitheads. John Mayer is also a fantastic blues-based guitar player. I think Joe Bonamassa gets credit from some for being the best white blues guitarist out there, but to my mind John Mayer is a far more interesting player. And I like Joe’s playing. So I’m not anti-Mayer. Mayer isn’t rock. That’s why guitarists hate him. Of course, guitarists also hate Nickelback. I don’t like their music, but I don’t feel the need to hate them. I grew out of that sort of thing.
Lots of words just came out. Mayer isn’t my favorite artist, but I like his music. I also like Phil X and the Drills.
Anyway, I’m off bass shopping. I wanted to find one at the Orlando Guitar Convention but I didn’t like the choices. Hopefully today will go better, and I’ll have a brand new bass to review.
