Dead and Co. Modified Silver Sky

[Andrew Paul]

Just happened to put a Dead and Company live concert from 2023 on YouTube and as I was watching a solo by John Mayer I noticed some modifications to his Silver Sky. Not sure if anyone on the Forum brought this up yet.... hope this is not a repeat thread. Anyway, I found a video of a gentleman talking about what he thinks the mods are which I thought was interesting and wanted to share it. Please post any other information you all might have.

 

[dmatthews]

Yeah there has been some discussion here revolving around the Alembic and the string tree.
Methinks it is a one off to get that last 5-10% of Jerry's tone.

 

[Andrew Paul]

Yeah there has been some discussion here revolving around the Alembic and the string tree.
Methinks it is a one off to get that last 5-10% of Jerry's tone.

Ok thanks. Thought it may have been an interesting topic.

 

[Chicken hawk]

Yeah there has been some discussion here revolving around the Alembic and the string tree.
Methinks it is a one off to get that last 5-10% of Jerry's tone.

He'll have to chop off his middle finger to get all the way there

 

[watelessness]

ugh. not a fan of him playing the SS with D&C. no girth, no sustain.

 

[Andrew Paul]

ugh. not a fan of him playing the SS with D&C. no girth, no sustain.

Yeah... it seems strange to me seeing the Super Eagle on a stand in the background. Play that beauty!

 

[László]

I'm not at all confident about the expertise of that YouTuber. He's obviously a fan of Mayer, but that's hardly important.

For example, he noticed the bridge was different. What he didn't realize is that it's a traditional PRS tremolo bridge. I highly doubt it's being used as a fixed bridge - there'd be very little point in doing it that way.

If you use a string tree on all six strings, it's going to change the break angle over the nut. Most likely would affect the feel. Might also affect the tone to have the additional contact points vibrating the headstock, similar to the way a 2 piece bridge sounds different from a single piece bridge due to the added points of contact with the body of a guitar.

 

[Andrew Paul]

I'm not at all confident about the expertise of that YouTuber. He's obviously a fan of Mayer, but that's hardly important.

For example, he noticed the bridge was different. What he didn't realize is that it's a traditional PRS tremolo bridge. I highly doubt it's being used as a fixed bridge - there'd be very little point in doing it that way.

If you use a string tree on all six strings, it's going to change the break angle over the nut. Most likely would affect the feel. Might also affect the tone to have the additional contact points vibrating the headstock, similar to the way a 2 piece bridge sounds different from a single piece bridge due to the added points of contact with the body of a guitar.

I noticed the same thing about the Bridge, it's not a SS Bridge but "traditional" term bridge that looks like it may be screwed to the body to create a fixed bridge. When I have some time I'll check out snippets from the 2023 concerts to get a better look.

 

[Lewguitar]

Yeah there has been some discussion here revolving around the Alembic and the string tree.
Methinks it is a one off to get that last 5-10% of Jerry's tone.

Me too.

Not that I'd want Jerry's tone.

But that Alembic Stratoblaster Booster under the output jack of Jerry's Strat and John's Silver Sky is kind of a must if you do.

 

[JohnM]

I didn't like the thin sound from the (I assume) stock Silver Sky Mayer played on last year's D&C tour. But the Silver Sky on this year's 2023 tour was much closer to providing a Jerry tone. The modifications really made a difference. I wonder if the pickups are stock SS? And he seemed to play mostly on the middle one.

 

[Lewguitar]

I didn't like the thin sound from the (I assume) stock Silver Sky Mayer played on last year's D&C tour. But the Silver Sky on this year's 2023 tour was much closer to providing a Jerry tone. The modifications really made a difference. I wonder if the pickups are stock SS? And he seemed to play mostly on the middle one.

I don't doubt it.

I almost always play my Strats and Silver Skys through a clean boost. I use one of my J Rokett "Jeff" Archers for that with the Gain on zero,

Doesn't distort unless I really dig in.

Just fattens things up and makes for a less plinky, more ear friendly tone.

I have a second J Rockett "Jeff" next to it that does have the Gain turned up.

If i want more overdrive, I can overdrive it with the clean boost. Or leave the clean boost off. Three cool sounds.

Anyways, Strats and Silver Skys sound good to me through a clean boost and then into an overdrive.