I ordered a Polar Blue Silver Sky with maple neck......stayed tuned.

[Revelation]

If you saw my other post, the Silver Sky at the store had a wide gap on the neck/body joint. I notified PRS and they took the guitar back from the store to correct it. I prefer ordering guitars from local stores if I can help it. Well, I just ordered the guitar again, this time sight unseen. It should be arriving on Saturday. I am hopeful that the neck/body joint is not an issue on this one.

On my other posts, I was not as much of a fan of the darker pickup sounds of the current Silver Sky vs my son's 2020 Silver Sky which has a little more top end. However as I have a bright and thinner sounding 1982 Fender Strat, I decided I wanted something closer to the early 60 Strats. I thought about the Fender Vintage II 61 Strat but some of the improvements on a Silver Sky draw me to it. I know the frets on the new ones are also taller than my son's Silver Sky as well. I am thinking, due to the 7.25 radius neck, the higher frets might be helpful when playing lead higher on the neck. Time will tell. I have a full 30 day trial period so I will be comparing it to my sons guitar as well as my 1982 Strat.

 

[Revelation]

The guitar came today. It looks beautiful and the neck was installed much better than the other one. It is also not as dark sounding as the gold one I tried out. Maybe the strings on the gold one were old? A little meatier than my Fender and a little lighter. I will be spending more time with it and will report back after a couple of hours with it. Oh it also has curly maple neck which looks great. It did not say it had it in the description, maybe they just had a piece and intalled it on this guitar.

 

[Revelation]

Negative observations:
1. Frets: The frets need to be sanded a little. They are not as smooth when bending the notes as I would like them to be. T
2. Controls: The tone and volume controls are a little too loose for my taste. I am so used to my Strat slight resistance.
3. Turning pegs are not attractive. Shiny silver like the Fender's would be better, even at this larger size.

Positive observations:
1. Body: The body is a little lighter than my Fender Strat which makes it a little more comfortable.
2. Pickups: With the poles higher up in the middle, it acts like a tube screamer pushing the mids forward and giving a more exciting sound. I tried it with clean and some breakup and it just pushes through better. My Strat with even poles sounds very even, perhaps laid back in comparison. In addition, there is a little more gain with the pickups. The gold PRS SK I tried was much darker. The only thing I can think of is that it was in the store for over a year and the strings got old and it lost some of its openess. I was really surprised that the new 2023 SK does quack as much as it does.
3. Neck: Very comfortable to play. The radius is the 7.25 like my 1982 Fender Strat. So I have no issues, but I do admit, I prefer 9.5 radius on my Fender Tele Pro for leads. It just has a little more space on the neck. I am 6.1 in height. so perhaps with larger hands this make a little more of a preference. Another thing is the satin finish which is easier to move around on vs a polished neck.
4. Tuning Pegs: The larger tuning pegs are easier to grab and the locking tuners are another plus.
5. Round vs square: I prefer the round back block on the neck better than the square block of the Fender.
6. Having 3 strings on top (left side) of the headstock and 3 on the other side makes it easier to find the right tuner to make adjustments.
7. The colors of the PRS Silver Sky pop more because they are not sticking with traditional colors. I still love traditional colors but having the option of new colors is nice.
8. Frets: The frets are taller on the Silver Sky. This makes it easier to stay in your lane bending the strings and working on vibrato.

Though having a hardshell case is nice, I am indifferent about it. Its easier to carry around a soft case.

Does the Silver Sky replace my 1982 Strat? No, not at all. I find myself not always wanting the mids to push out like the Silver Sky does. The low E on the Silver Sky is more relaxed while on the Fender it has more bass. So it can make playing rthy a little fuller with the Strat. I also found out you have to have different settings to get the best sound out of both of them. For instance, I did not like the tube screamer for lead with my Boogie Flux drive with the Silver Sky. I preferred using the Boss Blues driver which added a little more sustain while keeping the original sound. With my Fender Strat, the Tube Screamer (Ibanez 805) for lead sounded much better with the Flux pedal pushing the mids and creating more sustain. So my final destination in tone is very similar with both using a different pedals.

 

[bodia]

Nice! And, nice write up

 

[Revelation]

There is one other important difference that I did not mention either:
Bending the strings. It's easier to bend the strings on the Silver Sky than my Fender. I don't know why? But I actually went to a hybrid set on my Fender 09's on the top3 strings and 010's on the bottom lower strings as it was too hard to bend regular 010s on the guitar. Any ideas on what PRS did to make it easier to bend?

In comparing my Fender Strat to the Silver Sky, it really reminds me of comparing my Les Paul to my McCarty 594. The 594 has an open even sound that sounds beautiful. The Les Paul has that thicker tone with less detail and open-ness. The 1982 Fender has a stronger low end tone compared to the Silver Sky which has a more open detailed balanced sound.

 

[László]

Sounds like you're pretty happy so far. That's a good thing!

 

[DISTORT6]

Negative observations:
1. Frets: The frets need to be sanded a little. They are not as smooth when bending the notes as I would like them to be. T
2. Controls: The tone and volume controls are a little too loose for my taste. I am so used to my Strat slight resistance.
3. Turning pegs are not attractive. Shiny silver like the Fender's would be better, even at this larger size.

Positive observations:
1. Body: The body is a little lighter than my Fender Strat which makes it a little more comfortable.
2. Pickups: With the poles higher up in the middle, it acts like a tube screamer pushing the mids forward and giving a more exciting sound. I tried it with clean and some breakup and it just pushes through better. My Strat with even poles sounds very even, perhaps laid back in comparison. In addition, there is a little more gain with the pickups. The gold PRS SK I tried was much darker. The only thing I can think of is that it was in the store for over a year and the strings got old and it lost some of its openess. I was really surprised that the new 2023 SK does quack as much as it does.
3. Neck: Very comfortable to play. The radius is the 7.25 like my 1982 Fender Strat. So I have no issues, but I do admit, I prefer 9.5 radius on my Fender Tele Pro for leads. It just has a little more space on the neck. I am 6.1 in height. so perhaps with larger hands this make a little more of a preference. Another thing is the satin finish which is easier to move around on vs a polished neck.
4. Tuning Pegs: The larger tuning pegs are easier to grab and the locking tuners are another plus.
5. Round vs square: I prefer the round back block on the neck better than the square block of the Fender.
6. Having 3 strings on top (left side) of the headstock and 3 on the other side makes it easier to find the right tuner to make adjustments.
7. The colors of the PRS Silver Sky pop more because they are not sticking with traditional colors. I still love traditional colors but having the option of new colors is nice.
8. Frets: The frets are taller on the Silver Sky. This makes it easier to stay in your lane bending the strings and working on vibrato.

Though having a hardshell case is nice, I am indifferent about it. Its easier to carry around a soft case.

Does the Silver Sky replace my 1982 Strat? No, not at all. I find myself not always wanting the mids to push out like the Silver Sky does. The low E on the Silver Sky is more relaxed while on the Fender it has more bass. So it can make playing rthy a little fuller with the Strat. I also found out you have to have different settings to get the best sound out of both of them. For instance, I did not like the tube screamer for lead with my Boogie Flux drive with the Silver Sky. I preferred using the Boss Blues driver which added a little more sustain while keeping the original sound. With my Fender Strat, the Tube Screamer (Ibanez 805) for lead sounded much better with the Flux pedal pushing the mids and creating more sustain. So my final destination in tone is very similar with both using a different pedals.

There is one other important difference that I did not mention either:
Bending the strings. It's easier to bend the strings on the Silver Sky than my Fender. I don't know why? But I actually went to a hybrid set on my Fender 09's on the top3 strings and 010's on the bottom lower strings as it was too hard to bend regular 010s on the guitar. Any ideas on what PRS did to make it easier to bend?

In comparing my Fender Strat to the Silver Sky, it really reminds me of comparing my Les Paul to my McCarty 594. The 594 has an open even sound that sounds beautiful. The Les Paul has that thicker tone with less detail and open-ness. The 1982 Fender has a bigger thicker tone compared to the Silver Sky which has a more open detailed balacned sound.

These are quite the revelations…

Glad it seems to be working out.

 

[AP515]

Negative observations:
1. ...
2. Controls: The tone and volume controls are a little too loose for my taste. I am so used to my Strat slight resistance.
3...

put a felt pad under the knob between the knob and the guitar body. It will add just a little friction.

 

[CVS]

Congrats on your new guitar. Sounds like it is a keeper. I Have 2 SS's - One with Rosewood fretboard and one just like yours. They sound different and play different. My maple neck SS is a bit brighter with a bit more mids. I like both of them and have had both for over 2 years now. Before I purchased these guitars I had 2 Strats, one I sold and on the other I put in a set of Seymour Duncan Red Devil (humbucker) pick ups, so in my mind, it is no longer a Strat.

I hope you like your SS as much as I like mine.

 

[Revelation]

I had my Fender Strat since high school. I 'm so used to hearing the fuller lower freq's take over. However the more I play the Silver Sky the more I love it. My favorite ones are from 2021 to present. The more chime tone is growing on me. When I hear many players with Strats, I listen more carefully to their tone, and it seems like the early 60's Strat sound is the favorite of many.
As many prefer a 1959 Les Paul, it seems the 1961-1964 are Strat favorites. After playing the Fender Vintage II 61 Strat, I was very impressed with it. However with the Silver Sky, I with the taller frets, improved whammy bar, headstock, round block over the square, etc. that I found myself preferring the Silver Sky more and more.

 

[dmatthews]

I had my Fender Strat since high school. I 'm so used to hearing the fuller lower freq's take over. However the more I play the Silver Sky the more I love it. My favorite ones are from 2021 to present. The more chime tone is growing on me. When I hear many players with Strats, I listen more carefully to their tone, and it seems like the early 60's Strat sound is the favorite of many.
As many prefer a 1959 Les Paul, it seems the 1961-1964 are Strat favorites. After playing the Fender Vintage II 61 Strat, I was very impressed with it. However with the Silver Sky, I with the taller frets, improved whammy bar, headstock, round block over the square, etc. that I found myself preferring the Silver Sky more and more.

Silver Sky is a killer guitar. Congrats on a real beauty!

 

[Revelation]

Update;
Regarding the tuning pegs, they move very smoothly and the size of the knobs are really nice. I really enjoy the feel of the tuning pegs and the solid quick adjustments. The grey colored pegs are still not as good looking. The new tuning pegs on the NF53 look better.

Strings: Once I switch from the original PRS strings to DR Blues the guitar tone changed. The nice glassy sound was gone and it now had a meatier sound. In addition it was a little harder to bend the strings. Personally I like the tone of the guitar better with the glassy sound it has with the PRS strings. I just ordered PRS strings to replace the DR'S

Neck: The wood looks beautiful and after I sanded the frets with a Gator cloth, the frets are extra smooth.

Knobs: I got used to the no resistant knobs and have no issues with getting some nice swells with them. Being able to adjust the tone for the back pickup is a plus.

Pickups: I like these pickups more than any other single coil strat Pickups. They provide the sound I expect.

Whammy bar: Having a screw to adjust how loose or tight the bar is, is a really a plus. The springs loosened a little which make it a little easier to move.