The "Official Silver Sky" Thread

[Andy80]

Take it back to the store and exchange it.

I did better, took it back to the store and they fixed it on the spot

 

[Hudman316]

Great review!
Funny that you make the comparison to the Clapton strat in regards to the vintage frets. I too have a Clapton and they feel very similar when it comes to the frets. Love both my SS and "Blackie" , but they are different beasts. Glad I have both.
I also bought a Horizon for my color of choice. Very cool color, and my only RED guitar. I just received mine about 5 days ago, No static issues or cracked switch tip. Hoping to avoid those issues. Mine was built 4/19/19. Maybe they corrected those issues. I hope so....

Thanks again for the detailed review!

Appreciate it.

The static issue isn’t correctable - it’s just a condition created by the finish on the neck, the clothing you wear, humidity and the type of room you’re playing in. It’s simply environmental - it’s really a non issue - I simply stated it to confirm what others have said, it’s not even noticeable. They mailed me a new switch tip immediately. The new tip looks identical to the original tip.

 

[Shawn@PRS]

last night, John had a quick Q&A session online and here are a couple of snippets from that sessions.

 

[Rider1260]

I like the idea of a Maple Neck Silver Sky ( my wallet does not ) not sure how I feel about a different neck shape tho ( global change ) , its one of my favorite parts of the Silver Sky

 

[DougUSMC]

I am both jealous, and glad that I'm a lefty, at the same time...

 

[ScottR]

Yes please...

 

[smithbuddy760]

So on instagram he mentioned a proto satin nitro finish. It was first seen on the moc sand and now this frost version with the white neck appears to also have a satin finish. Any word on this nitro satin finish being available publicly. About to pull the trigger on a frost but if this is available soon Id opt for it

 

[Boogie]

I am both jealous, and glad that I'm a lefty, at the same time...

Me too...except I play righty. Wait...

 

[Jkater]

My SS arrived yesterday. I ordered it without ever playing or seeing one in person. I’m new to PRS guitars. I’ve been playing guitar since the mid ‘80’s. I just never got around to buying a PRS before now.

I apologize in advance to all of the SS veterans but I’m going to provide a lengthy review for the folks on the fence about the SS.

My initial impression:

1. The gigbag is nice. Thick padding, heavy duty zippers, heavy duty stitching. nice handle, back pack straps and plenty of storage space. It has a built in headstock guard to keep the string ends from damaging the inside of the gigbag. It also has rubber bump guards on the ends where it is most likely to get the most wear and tear when traveling. I can honestly say it’s one of the nicest gigbags I ever owned. As a side note: I like cases but have no problem with a nice gigbag. All of my cases and gigbags get stored away. The guitars hang on the wall.

2. I know this is cliche but the horizon finish looks better in person. It looks more burgundy than red at certain angles in the light. I consider it to be a deep read with a touch of metallic. Almost candy apple but a tad darker / deeper. I chose horizon because I don’t own any red guitars. The finish is flawless. I couldn’t find a single blemish anywhere.

3. It was built on 12/12/2018. I was slightly surprised it was built nearly 8 months ago with how fast they are selling but I think horizon is not one of their most popular colors. I weighed it at 7 lbs 3 oz. The weight seems to be in the average range with other SS guitars. It is 12 oz lighter than my American Strat (alder).

4. I played the guitar unplugged for a solid 45 minutes prior to running it through my amp. The fretwork is incredible. The setup out of the box was comfortable - not too high with just a touch of neck relief. It plays buzz free with no dead frets. It resonates well and sounds great acoustically. No dead fret out on bends anywhere on the neck. I was doing 2 whole step bends with ease. The frets are smooth. I found myself doing tons of slides. More than normal. The tremolo is silky smooth. Much smoother than my American Strat. I suspect it has something to do with the knife edge screws and zero slack in the trem bar. Very impressive.

5. Neck profile / fretboard radius: I read and watched a bunch of reviews of the Silver Sky over the past year. There are so many different opinions and descriptions of the neck - many conflicting. People claim it’s thick, wide across the fretboard , soft V, flat D, etc, etc. I never seen so many different descriptions of a neck profile. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’ve owned many guitars over the past 35 years. I have average size hands. I don’t consider the SS neck to be thick, a soft V, a flat D or wide across the fretboard. In my hands it feels like a C shape neck profile just a touch thicker/ deeper than my EVH Wolfgang neck profile with a similar shape and width. I never owned a 7.25” radius. The combination of the neck profile with the rounder radius makes the neck fit perfect in my hand. I don’t even think about the rounder fretboard. It’s just super comfortable and natural. I can wrap my thumb around to fret the E all the way up the neck. It’s hard to explain but I can honestly say it’s more comfortable than the modern C - 9.5” radius neck on my American Special Strat. PRS and Mayer designed a killer neck.

5. Fret size: PRS calls them narrow / tall. I owned an Eric Clapton Strat with vintage frets. The frets on the SS are nearly identical in size. They may be a tiny bit taller than standard vintage frets but they are far smaller than the modern narrow / tall frets Fender puts on their American Professional Strat (I owned one of them too). The fretwork on the SS is superior to the fretwork on the EC Strat I owned. They are more polished, more crowned and super level. They are glass smooth, vibrato and bending is effortless. All my other guitars have jumbo frets but I’m very flexible when it comes to fret size and neck profile. I believe the vintage frets, fretboard radius and neck profile work extremely well together. I don’t think it would feel right with larger frets. That’s just my opinion.
I think the frets are perfect for the guitar however, if you’re convinced you can only play medium jumbo or jumbo frets the SS is not for you.

6. Pickups / electronics: I realize tone is subjective. The pickups are outstanding in my opinion. I assumed I would have to lower the stock height nearly flush to the pickguard like I do on Strats to tame the brightness. I was wrong. The SS pickups don’t have the traditional ice pick brightness I associate with traditional single coil pickups. I’m not sure how they did it, but they sound balanced - plenty of bass with out getting muddy and plenty of treble without sounding shrill and loud. You can roll off the volume without sounding muddy. In addition, the tone pots give it a wide range of usable tones.

7. Is it a glorified Stratocaster knockoff? Not in my opinion. I believe it is an updated version of a classic guitar. It’s a blend of Strat concepts and PRS engineering combined with Mayer’s tastes in playability and tone. I believe the tilted headstock (no string trees), PRS knife edge tremolo screws, PRS locking tuners, PRS electronics and pickups set it apart from the typical Strat.

8. Problems: My Switch tip is cracked in the center. I noticed it right away. I think it’s a design flaw. The steel switch creates a weak point in the wide plastic knob. Like splitting a log. I sent an email to PRS. The static noise - crackle and pop - I read about it on the forums. My guitar does it when I touch the neck. It’s very slight. No big deal. Interestingly, I had the same problem with an Eric Johnson Stratocaster but it was more severe - especially in the winter. The EJ Stratocaster has a lacquer neck like the Silver Sky. Unlike the SS, It has lacquer on the fretboard as well. I believe the lacquer is the issue. I believe it builds up static electricity. I may be wrong. I tried shielding the EJ pickguard and the dryer sheet trick. It didn’t eliminate the static.

In conclusion, I think it’s a great guitar. I’m happy with my decision to buy it.

This is a fantastic review! Thanks for putting the effort and sharing this. I agree that the gigbag is particularly fine with many features that set it apart from the average bag.
The frets are one of my favorite part of this and was a pleasant surprise. Very positive contact and the slightest touch yields a clear note which makes the playability excellent regardless of the action.

 

[Hudman316]

This is a fantastic review! Thanks for putting the effort and sharing this. I agree that the gigbag is particularly fine with many features that set it apart from the average bag.
The frets are one of my favorite part of this and was a pleasant surprise. Very positive contact and the slightest touch yields a clear note which makes the playability excellent regardless of the action.

Thanks. I did a bunch of research and read as many reviews as I could find because I bought it without ever playing one.

I wanted to provide a review that would address some of the concerns I had when I started shopping for one.

 

[DougUSMC]

Ok, I haven't been able to get this thread out of my mind for days. I quipped about being glad to be a lefty, but now I'm back to being annoyed.
I read a couple dozen pages, but couldn't keep going, so I'm going to throw out a couple of questions here:

1) I don't recall where I saw it, but I believe that I read "these will only ever be righty" somewhere. Can someone confirm that?
2) What's the deal w/that maple neck we see in the pics? Is that something that's coming, or still in development?
3) Am I crazy in rethinking my "I'll never string a guitar up backwards again" statements to pick one of these up? I know "YMMV", but I can't get a tungsten out of my head right now.

I know, I know, I got it bad...

 

[Shawn@PRS]

Ok, I haven't been able to get this thread out of my mind for days. I quipped about being glad to be a lefty, but now I'm back to being annoyed.
I read a couple dozen pages, but couldn't keep going, so I'm going to throw out a couple of questions here:

1) I don't recall where I saw it, but I believe that I read "these will only ever be righty" somewhere. Can someone confirm that?
2) What's the deal w/that maple neck we see in the pics? Is that something that's coming, or still in development?
3) Am I crazy in rethinking my "I'll never string a guitar up backwards again" statements to pick one of these up? I know "YMMV", but I can't get a tungsten out of my head right now.

I know, I know, I got it bad...

1) I don't recall where I saw it, but I believe that I read "these will only ever be righty" somewhere. Can someone confirm that?
- We have no immediate plans to offer a lefty version of the Silver Sky, but never say never.
2) What's the deal w/that maple neck we see in the pics? Is that something that's coming, or still in development?
- John wanted a maple board, John got a maple board.
3) Am I crazy in rethinking my "I'll never string a guitar up backwards again" statements to pick one of these up? I know "YMMV", but I can't get a tungsten out of my head right now.
- A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. ​

 

[Alnus Rubra]

1) I don't recall where I saw it, but I believe that I read "these will only ever be righty" somewhere. Can someone confirm that?
- We have no immediate plans to offer a lefty version of the Silver Sky, but never say never.
2) What's the deal w/that maple neck we see in the pics? Is that something that's coming, or still in development?
- John wanted a maple board, John got a maple board.
3) Am I crazy in rethinking my "I'll never string a guitar up backwards again" statements to pick one of these up? I know "YMMV", but I can't get a tungsten out of my head right now.
- A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. ​

Stealth reply!

 

[Shawn@PRS]

I think I posted these earlier in this thread, but due to some questions about the Silver Sky bridge set up, I'm posting the pics again.
The front edge of the bridge is raised slightly so that it doesn't hit the top of the guitar when the trem function is used. The little beveled edge at the front of the trem is also there to prevent the bridge from hitting the guitar body when using the trem function.

 

[DougUSMC]

1) I don't recall where I saw it, but I believe that I read "these will only ever be righty" somewhere. Can someone confirm that?
- We have no immediate plans to offer a lefty version of the Silver Sky, but never say never.
2) What's the deal w/that maple neck we see in the pics? Is that something that's coming, or still in development?
- John wanted a maple board, John got a maple board.
3) Am I crazy in rethinking my "I'll never string a guitar up backwards again" statements to pick one of these up? I know "YMMV", but I can't get a tungsten out of my head right now.
- A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. ​

Wow, thanks for the FAST and super detailed response.
1) That's what I thought, thanks for the clarification. Just to nit-pick on that a bit: I also heard that maybe Silver Sky wasn't on the list for PS, is that true?
2) +1,000,000 interwebz for that hilarious, coffee-snarf-causing response. For the record, I concur w/that opinion
3) I'm starting to think i'm going to have to do it...

 

[Shawn@PRS]

Wow, thanks for the FAST and super detailed response.
1) That's what I thought, thanks for the clarification. Just to nit-pick on that a bit: I also heard that maybe Silver Sky wasn't on the list for PS, is that true?
2) +1,000,000 interwebz for that hilarious, coffee-snarf-causing response. For the record, I concur w/that opinion
3) I'm starting to think i'm going to have to do it...

1) That's what I thought, thanks for the clarification. Just to nit-pick on that a bit: I also heard that maybe Silver Sky wasn't on the list for PS, is that true?
- As of right now, we are not offering the Silver Sky as a Private Stock model, only the core model is available.
2) +1,000,000 interwebz for that hilarious, coffee-snarf-causing response. For the record, I concur w/that opinion
- Can you please share that with my family? They don't find me the least bit funny.
3) I'm starting to think i'm going to have to do it...
- But then you'd be known as JimiUSMC​

 

[bodia]

3) I'm starting to think i'm going to have to do it...

Starting to think???? WTF is wrong with you, man!?!?!?!?!? I can't believe you haven't pulled the trigger yet. For the love of god, you're letting us all down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Starting to think???? WTF is wrong with you, man!?!?!?!?!? I can't believe you haven't pulled the trigger yet. For the love of god, you're letting us all down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hasn’t he got a PS in the oven already?

 

[DougUSMC]

1) That's what I thought, thanks for the clarification. Just to nit-pick on that a bit: I also heard that maybe Silver Sky wasn't on the list for PS, is that true?
- As of right now, we are not offering the Silver Sky as a Private Stock model, only the core model is available.
2) +1,000,000 interwebz for that hilarious, coffee-snarf-causing response. For the record, I concur w/that opinion
- Can you please share that with my family? They don't find me the least bit funny.
3) I'm starting to think i'm going to have to do it...
- But then you'd be known as JimiUSMC

It sounds like you're really "helping" me narrow down my decision. Just to be clear tho - I'm no Jimi!

 

[DougUSMC]

Ha!!! There's really two main problems:
1) I hate, Hate, HATE playing upside down righties. Everything from the whammy bar being on the wrong side, the buttons and switch being in my armpit, and having to drill a new hole to hang the strap is such a HUGE PITA.
2) I *did* just buy that Dallas head, so need to proceed cautiously...