NGD & a Re-Introduction

Well, folks, I've done it again. The Silver Sky is an amazing instrument. When I first got it I thought it might be the perfect strat - those pickups are just so full, so balanced, so ballsy and throaty, so unlike any other strat I've heard. But over time that became less of a positive and more of just a "different". And I found myself going back to my cheap old Robert Cray more and more and playing the Silver Sky less and less. Part of that was the neck, which I clearly preferred on the Cray from day 1, but most of it was I seemed to like how I was playing better on the Cray. I guess because the Silver Sky sounds so different from any other strat I've played, it causes me to play differently. And in my case that wasn't for the better. There's something about those "strattier" tones that I get from the Cray, the bigger differences between the 1, 3, 5 and the 2, 4, the somewhat thinner, less throaty sound from the Cray that I was sounding better on. And then I realized the reason I was so blown away with the Silver Sky initially is that it didn't sound like any other strat I'd played. And that's kind of because it's not quite a strat. It's got a really different sound. It's a great sound, but it's not quite a strat sound, at least as my ears hear a strat sound. And over the past month or so, I started realizing that as great a guitar as the Silver Sky is, it was gonna end up as my #2, my backup. It's both too nice and too valuable to serve that role.

So, I parted ways with it, sent it to someone for whom I hope it will be a #1, or maybe someone with a larger enough collection that it'll be one more excellent guitar. Edit: turns out he plays in a John Mayer cover band, so there's that - didn't even know those existed... But I'm not that guy, I'm kind of a guitar monogamist. And as great a guitar as it was, the Silver Sky wasn't the one. I'll buy something with a thicker, throatier sound as my backup, my #2, but it'll be probably a cheap Epiphone with P90s or something. It'll mostly live in the closet and come out on occasion when I want THAT sound, but 95% of the time or more, it seems my Robert Cray is just my axe. I've entertained other options a few times now and it keeps coming out on top. I REALLY thought the Silver Sky was gonna relegate it to backup duty, but I was wrong again. And you don't even want to know how little I paid for that guitar. I bought it for it's listed price of $925 but because of an accounting mistake by a large national retailer, when I called a few weeks later to get a 15% discount because of a sale they were then having, they screwed up and refunded me 85% instead of 15%. I called them to alert them to their mistake, the kid I talked to thanked me and said he'd take care of it, and nothing ever happened. I figured I'd done the ethical thing by calling, but I wasn't gonna go out of my way to INSIST if they didn't want to get their money back. So my #1 seems to be a Robert Cray strat I paid the princely sum of $140 for over two years ago. Maybe some things are just meant to be...

Appreciate all the hospitality. I'll stop by again from time to time, but I don't have anything local for show and tell anymore...

Stay well everyone,

-Ray
 
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Ray, I always stop to read any post you make because I always find them honest and informative. Your last one was no exception.

May I suggest if you are looking for some cheap P-90 equipped guitar, try a used SE Soapbar II. Besides it being a way under-priced, fine playing & sounding guitar, it would give you another reason to hang out here.

Or I’m sure someone here could talk you into some US-made PRS with soapbars.
 
Tim S said:
Ray, I always stop to read any post you make because I always find them honest and informative. Your last one was no exception.

May I suggest if you are looking for some cheap P-90 equipped guitar, try a used SE Soapbar II. Besides it being a way under-priced, fine playing & sounding guitar, it would give you another reason to hang out here.

Or I’m sure someone here could talk you into some US-made PRS with soapbars.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words, Tim.

I actually tried a Soapbar II a couple years ago and it sounded incredible, but I had the same problem with it that I had with the 594 (and every Les Paul or similar I’ve tried playing). I play seated and the leg cut on those guitars is too far to the left, toward the neck, for me to be able to play them comfortably. It shifts the whole guitar to the right far enough that it screws up where my picking hand naturally lands (right on top of the neck pickup) and it forces me to twist around uncomfortably to get to the upper frets. It would be a problem with pretty nearly any PRS except the Silver Sky, or with any Les Paul or its many imitators. I played those guitars as a kid, but it was never a problem because I was always standing up, playing with a strap... But at this point, between playing seated and having more of a gut to contend with, I can’t play those guitars for any period of time without back pain. So I’m probably gonna be checking out an SG or a Firebird or something else with the leg cut in a more comfortable position for me. Or a semi-hollow - I’ve been pretty comfortable playing those mostly. It was a good suggestion, but one I’ve long since tried and ruled out...

-Ray
 
If you are right handed, have you tried playing with the guitar on your left leg? Has always seemed the natural position for me although I know many righties place it on their right.
 
Warmart said:
If you are right handed, have you tried playing with the guitar on your left leg? Has always seemed the natural position for me although I know many righties place it on their right.
Click to expand...

This is what I've had to do since my arms got shorter (or maybe my gut got bigger - hard to say).

But I think we asked Ray that before...
 
Warmart said:
If you are right handed, have you tried playing with the guitar on your left leg? Has always seemed the natural position for me although I know many righties place it on their right.
Click to expand...

alantig said:
This is what I've had to do since my arms got shorter (or maybe my gut got bigger - hard to say).

But I think we asked Ray that before...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I went through that whole discussion a couple years ago when I had to bail on a basically amazing and perfect 594 (although turns out I don't own a single humbucker guitar now, so odds are I wouldn't have kept it indefinitely anyway, as great as it was). I'd tried switching to the "classical" position on my left leg. I tried hanging it from a strap even while seated and avoiding both legs. Nothing felt right. Decided that while those are all good suggestions, I'm at a point in life that I'm not gonna try to adapt to a guitar - there are enough fine ones out there I can comfortably play the way I've always played.

I'm gonna go with an SG Special with P90s. Somehow, that's maybe the one iconic guitar I'm not sure I've even ever played - I can't think of anyone I've known that had one. It looks like it should be very comfortable to play, so assuming it sounds good, it should work...

That was never an issue with the Silver Sky, BTW - that guitar was perfectly comfortable to play for as long as my fingers were up for it...

-Ray
 
RaySachs said:
Well, folks, I've done it again. The Silver Sky is an amazing instrument. When I first got it I thought it might be the perfect strat - those pickups are just so full, so balanced, so ballsy and throaty, so unlike any other strat I've heard. But over time that became less of a positive and more of just a "different". And I found myself going back to my cheap old Robert Cray more and more and playing the Silver Sky less and less. Part of that was the neck, which I clearly preferred on the Cray from day 1, but most of it was I seemed to like how I was playing better on the Cray. I guess because the Silver Sky sounds so different from any other strat I've played, it causes me to play differently. And in my case that wasn't for the better. There's something about those "strattier" tones that I get from the Cray, the bigger differences between the 1, 3, 5 and the 2, 4, the somewhat thinner, less throaty sound from the Cray that I was sounding better on. And then I realized the reason I was so blown away with the Silver Sky initially is that it didn't sound like any other strat I'd played. And that's kind of because it's not quite a strat. It's got a really different sound. It's a great sound, but it's not quite a strat sound, at least as my ears hear a strat sound. And over the past month or so, I started realizing that as great a guitar as the Silver Sky is, it was gonna end up as my #2, my backup. It's both too nice and too valuable to serve that role.

So, I parted ways with it, sent it to someone for whom I hope it will be a #1, or maybe someone with a larger enough collection that it'll be one more excellent guitar. But I'm not that guy, I'm kind of a guitar monogamist. And as great a guitar as it was, the Silver Sky wasn't the one. I'll buy something with a thicker, throatier sound as my backup, my #2, but it'll be probably a cheap Epiphone with P90s or something. It'll mostly live in the closet and come out on occasion when I want THAT sound, but 95% of the time or more, it seems my Robert Cray is just my axe. I've entertained other options a few times now and it keeps coming out on top. I REALLY thought the Silver Sky was gonna relegate it to backup duty, but I was wrong again. And you don't even want to know how little I paid for that guitar. I bought it for it's listed price of $925 but because of an accounting mistake by a large national retailer, when I called a few weeks later to get a 15% discount because of a sale they were then having, they screwed up and refunded me 85% instead of 15%. I called them to alert them to their mistake, the kid I talked to thanked me and said he'd take care of it, and nothing ever happened. I figured I'd done the ethical thing by calling, but I wasn't gonna go out of my way to INSIST if they didn't want to get their money back. So my #1 seems to be a Robert Cray strat I paid the princely sum of $140 for over two years ago. Maybe some things are just meant to be...

Appreciate all the hospitality. I'll stop by again from time to time, but I don't have anything local for show and tell anymore...

Stay well everyone,

-Ray
Click to expand...
I’m so not a Strat guy, but I always felt I needed one. Got a DC3 recently after months of looking for one. You get the sound you like, but with a regular PRS fingerboard radius, and your familiar body shape. There’s one for sale on San Francisco Craigslist that came up just after I pulled the trigger, and it’s blue to boot. Definitely check out the DC 3. The big bonus is the location of the volume control. Time to go play it, and stay with us.
 
dogrocketp said:
I’m so not a Strat guy, but I always felt I needed one. Got a DC3 recently after months of looking for one. You get the sound you like, but with a regular PRS fingerboard radius, and your familiar body shape. There’s one for sale on San Francisco Craigslist that came up just after I pulled the trigger, and it’s blue to boot. Definitely check out the DC 3. The big bonus is the location of the volume control. Time to go play it, and stay with us.
Click to expand...

The difference is I clearly AM a strat guy, though. Have been since about 1978. I’ve never NOT liked traditional Strats - I haven’t liked ALL of them, but I’ve liked most and LOVED a few. My initial impression of the Silver Sky was it was the best sounding strat I’d ever played. And in some very real ways, the Silver Sky pickups ARE some of the best strat pickups out there. But, also in some very real ways, they sound pretty different than any other strat I’ve played. For some that’s all positive - I initially thought it was for me. But for a lot of folks, probably mostly those who HAVE been strat guys right along, it’s NOT all positive. And after several month, that’s where I found I was.

I knew from early on the Silver Sky neck was far from my favorite strat neck, but it was more than fine and that would never have caused me to part with it. It was ultimately the sound of those great pickups that I initially found so intoxicating but I ultimately didn’t like as much as the more traditional strat sounds I get from my Robert Cray Strat. I initially loved them, but I think I loved them more in the way I like a tele bridge pickup or P90s or even some humbuckers. But I’d already had those other things and largely rejected them (except P90s, which I will have again, but in a clearly secondary role). I just evidently play more to my liking with the various different sounds of a number of other Strats, than I do with the somewhat more authoritative sound of the Silver Sky.

The Silver Sky seems to be a strat that a lot of people love who have never quite loved another strat before. And, in fairness, plenty of people who HAVE loved other Strats. But most of the folks who don’t end up loving the Silver Sky seem to be folks who are strat lovers, who’ve been waaaaay into other Strats along the way and may be intrigued enough with this new flavor to try it, but ultimately don’t find it as “stratty” as they like. To my surprise, after an initial very positive impression, I find myself in this latter group.

So I’m probably not so much looking for another PRS that’s a bit less stratty and more PRS-ey than the Silver Sky. I think it just took me a while to realize I already had what I wanted and needed...

-Ray
 
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Thanks for the clarification. I’m going to take the DC3 to my luthier (Fender guy) who played a Strat for many years. I don’t see this as less stratty, more as a way to get the neck profile I want. My thought being if you really liked the PRs neck profile, this would get you there. And you don’t have to deal with the volume knob placement. At any rate, hope you see more, hear more, play more, and post more about whatever PRS experience you have.
 
Ray...OOOOOhhhhh...I'm a P-90 lover, and I know you may have reached a "good guitar place"...but...
If you ever see an older , used Mccarty Soapbar ...they're killer instruments...(Perfect neck for me...big 'n chunky)…
and reasonably inexpensive (1300-1500). Check them out!!! Some of the best sounding P-90's I've played...
(Only because you've mentioned obtaining P-90s again at some point.)
Enjoy your Jam time...They're always some of the best times.
 
Bill SAS 513 said:
Ray...OOOOOhhhhh...I'm a P-90 lover, and I know you may have reached a "good guitar place"...but...
If you ever see an older , used Mccarty Soapbar ...they're killer instruments...(Perfect neck for me...big 'n chunky)…
and reasonably inexpensive (1300-1500). Check them out!!! Some of the best sounding P-90's I've played...
(Only because you've mentioned obtaining P-90s again at some point.)
Enjoy your Jam time...They're always some of the best times.
Click to expand...

I'd love to - an inexpensive PRS Soapbar was one of the great sounding P90 guitars I've played, but I refer you to what I wrote in an earlier post on that subject:

"I actually tried a Soapbar II a couple years ago and it sounded incredible, but I had the same problem with it that I had with the 594 (and every Les Paul or similar I’ve tried playing). I play seated and the leg cut on those guitars is too far to the left, toward the neck, for me to be able to play them comfortably. It shifts the whole guitar to the right far enough that it screws up where my picking hand naturally lands (right on top of the neck pickup) and it forces me to twist around uncomfortably to get to the upper frets. It would be a problem with pretty nearly any PRS except the Silver Sky, or with any Les Paul or its many imitators. I played those guitars as a kid, but it was never a problem because I was always standing up, playing with a strap... But at this point, between playing seated and having more of a gut to contend with, I can’t play those guitars for any period of time without back pain."

I'm currently trying an Epiphone SG with P90s and I think it's gonna stick. After selling the Silver Sky, I could have easily bought a Gibson level SG, but frankly the Epiphone is a switch and a few pots away from being a hell of a guitar. It sounds great and plays insanely well - there's been a rash of cheap guitars that play incredibly well lately, from PRS SE models, to Epiphones, to Squiers, just upgrade a couple of components and you've got a shockingly good guitar. AND if I bought a Gibson, I'd always know there was enough value in it that if I found myself not playing it for a period of time (which seems to be inevitable with any guitar I own that's not a strat), I'd be tempted to sell it. Well, at $400 new, I won't have any incentive to sell the Epiphone. And I really should keep it, because I've had three or four P90 guitars over the past few years and ended up selling all of them when I wasn't playing them. I've done that with teles and humbucker based guitars and never missed them and never wanted another. But I seem to need to play P90s from time to time, even though it's the strat 99% of the time, so every time I sell one, I end up having to buy another, as I'm doing now. So I want something cheap that I know I'll just keep because there's nothing to be gained by selling it. Oh, and the SG is insanely comfortable for me to play, with a leg cut back behind the bridge pickup. Neck dive would be a problem if I played standing with a strap, but my arm draped over the lower bout negates it when I'm playing seated, as I do... So I THINK I'm gonna be good for a while...

-Ray
 
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