I finally got one! Woohoo!
Wjen the Silver Sky SE first came out, I wasnt really interested in Strat type guitars at the time. Earlier this year, the itch came around and I really wanted the Strat sound back for several tunes my current band does. I built a sort of Silver Sky partscaster thing earlier this year, and fell in love. I began wondering how the full model was, so pulled the trigger finally! So, now that I've had her for a bit over a week, here's my thoughts.
The Good:
The neck. Easily my favorite aspect of any SE SS I've played or demoed is the neck. I love the 8.5" radius, the feel is fantastic, and compared to Strats I've played these necks are so much more comfortable. There are only a handful of Strats I've played in my time that I can say I loved (and ironically, most were Mexican).
Pickups. I've seen several reviews that dogged the pickups, I have to disagree. I like these alot. The frequency response is really not much different from the domestic version. I found a thread here where somebody went Einstein on a comparison, and the conclusion was that the 653JM(s) pickps are really not far off at all. They are a bit darker, as are most SE pickups that are aiming to be an SE version of an existing pickup. That said, SE pickups generally as a whole I find to be more muddy than dark, but not these. These are clear, have nice definition, I really can't knock em at all.
Headstock design. Its really a great design and does the job without string trees and nut binding.
Nut. What?! ME complementing an SE nut? Yeah. These are clearly a different material than the synth bronze stuff other SE's use. According to the PRS website, this is a synth bone, so more like Nubone or Tusq I suppose. It has that higher pitch ping when you drop it, just like those. This seems harder, no string gouging, and no binding when using the trem. It works. That's all I wanted.
Other stuff I like...I like the knob design alot, I like the raised output jack plate, I also like the color choices. I'm not the biggest fan of the colors the core version is made in; too many pastels and light colors. The SE's look more vivid. The saddles are fine. I like these much more than stock saddles on other trem equipped SE's.
The bad?:
There really isnt much about the SE SS I can criticize negatively, but there are some things that do have me scratching my head. First, the grey plastic motif. So, the truss rod cover, the birds, and the tuner buttons are all a grey plastic, and not just any grey color...its literally the color of auto primer. Why? I'm not turned off or anything, I'm fine with it, but I would love to know whose idea it was to do auto primer grey for these accents? I dont get it. Was it a John Mayer thing? I would have preferred black.
Lack of locking tuners is always going to be a point I will challenge PRS on. These axes arent cheap, so why cheap out on tuners? They arent bad by any stretch of the imagination, but you can get guitars for this price and cheaper with locking tuners standard. My D'Angelico Mini was less expensive and has lockers standard. I dont see how it would increase the cost that much to include lockers.
Decked bridge setup. I get this is a John Mayer thing, but it takes some time to go from a decked setup to a floating setup, whereas its considerably simpler to do the reverse. I dont care about making the conversion myself, but it might be challenging for some owners if they want to make the change. I'd rather the bridge was setup floating as standard.
The ugly:
Ironically, the neck is my favorite aspect of the SE SS, but its also the worst part. I watched another guy review the exact same model I have in the same color, and his biggest gripe was the frets. The fretwork on his was decent, but the finishing was poor He had sharp fret ends, and quite a few of em. I decided to investigate mine, and sure enough, mainly in the same area, sharp fret ends. Some of these were so egregious I could hold the neck by hanging the fret end from a fingernail. Further investigation revealed unfinished fret ends on nearly the entire neck. Some better than others, but overall just nothing finished. Now, you might say "but its an SE. What do you expect?" My SE Paul's Guitar has flawless fretwork and the ends are rolled remarkably well, easily rivaling guitars three times its cost in worksmanship. I've barely done anything to the frets since I bought it. The way these are finished makes me suspect poor worksmanship, not an issue caused by neck shrinkage.
Now, its an easy issue to fix. You can do it in minutes, but you shouldnt have to, not on a $850 axe. To be fair, its not the kind of thing that makes the guitar unplayable, and I didnt even notice at first, but that's no excuse for not finishing the fretwork.
Since then, I went through the entire fretboard, finished all the frets, reworked all fret ends, and spot leveled everything. Prior to this, the action, using treble side marks, couldnt get below factory spec at 4/64". It shipped to me at 5/64", now, it sits comfortably at 2.5/64" (a hair under 1mm), with no buzz, no choked bends anywhere, and the board feels much faster. For me, its just spending my time, but for someone else that's going to be extra money spent on a luthier to finish the job. I'm not expecting all frets to be perfectly leveled, but you HAVE to finish the ends.
Overall though, fantastic guitar, easily better than most Fenders I've played. I have had a love-hate relationship with Strats, most of my faves are usually MIM ones, I've found many more expensive Strats to be a joyless experience to play. The SE SS is just fantastic. I would absolutley buy another, and I think after the fretboard work, I cant see how the core version could play better. Overall, I'm very impressed. Just finish the damn fret ends!
