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| The Silver Sky. |
I'm sure it is a wonderful instrument as all the PRS range are but you have to say it is undoubtedly a Stratocaster knock-off. Yes, the world is full of Strat knock-off's, even Fender make their own knock-off's but when it's a major guitar brand such as the well respected Paul Reid Smith guitar company that produce a silhouette of the iconic shape it's nothing but controversial on a mega scale. The internet is smothered in it as I write. Paul and John Meyer himself have been fulfilling interview requests with all the online guitar magazines to justify creating (read: pinching) such a design.
This isn't the first time PRS have made a S-S-S with trem style guitar. In fact the PRS SE EG are very sought after but I suppose having John coming on-board as a PRS artist and releasing a guitar so close to a traditional Strat has made the headlines, big time.
So let's take a look at what you can buy. Can you get the John Meyer sound? I suppose you can if you have the right gear at the end of your lead but then you also can with a Fender Stratocaster too. Geez, it has three single coils, it IS going to sound like a Strat no matter what magic are in the pickups. And according to Paul there is magic in the pickups and the ice-picky tone has been eliminated from the bridge pickup which I thought was a bit of a shame, but not every guitarist likes to draw blood from the ears of the front row like I do.
At the moment the alder body colour choice are just four safe colours with fancy names, frost, horizon, onyx and tungsten. White, red, black and Johns personal fav. silver. What, no sea-foam green? It's pretty classy of PRS not to go with trending colours actually. It takes a close look at the styling of the body to notice that it has not followed the traditional lines and there are some, albeit slight alterations. If you clicky the image above to see the biggy you will see that PRS have scooped the bottom cutaway (horn) to accommodate high register access. This scoop is present of all PRS guitars and it was interesting to see how they incorporated it into the The Silver Sky design. Some will like this but even though it has been well executed I still feel it has lost the roundy feely thing of the Strat somewhat and makes me think of JJ Cale's home made cutaway on his old rat's nest Harmony.
I thought the 7.25" radius of the rosewood fingerboard was an interesting one. The tight radius fingerboards of the 50's/60's I thought had died with the dinosaur's and rarely seen these days on modern guitars. Paul of course justified this and even demonstrated there was no choking out on the The Silver Sky. Hang on! Why isn't it called The Tungston Sky? I love the PRS birdies but the PRS headstock looks a bit unmusical on a Strat guitar IMO. I suppose it would be easier to redesign the pyramids than come up with a 'new' headstock. I thought the plastic tuner buttons cheapened the guitar somewhat.
The hardware, the plasticware and the electrics. I did notice the jack socket cup had a bit of style and is not just a piece of Chinese stamped metal. The re-engineered six point vintage style tremolo was pretty standard with six bent steel saddles. I much prefer the sound of these over steel block saddles. There is no spec on string spacing but I should think this would be 10.5mm (narrow). The trem has a push in arm so no plumbers tape required. The guitar is delivered with four springs in the trem but there is no indication as to string gauges/brand and as the trem is set up flat on the deck I think there maybe some adjustment's required for your personal preference. I though this was an interesting concept from the PRS website.. By keeping the bridge in contact with the body, the guitar itself is acoustically louder, which improves the signal to noise ratio of the single-coil pickups. Can someone please pass me a bucket. Also there was an absence of a back cover plate which I thought exposing the mechanics of the trem system detracted a little from the overall class of the instrument. -2 points for that. A contrasting brushed black chrome neck plate with the model name and Pauls sig. plus a curved top to follow the curve of the heal was a nice touch. Plastic. Well apart from a missing back plate the eight screw pickguard was of the usual pure white three layer variety. A slightly different shape to a regular Strat guard to accommodate the slightly different shaped body. Paul has retooled the shiny Strat knobs with a hump on the top and five way switch tip has been remodelled. +3 points for these non-standard Strat features. The placement of the volume control was a tad lower than standard but not enough to make any real difference. It was nice to also see counter sunk screws for pickup height adjustment compared to most guitar with round top screws. There is no indication as to the actual pots or their brand but no doubt they are CTS and 250k. Paul says all three pickups are the same (less ice picky) and have been designed and precisely wound to suit John Mayer's taste. The pickups are very cleverly named 635JM's. Think 63 point 5, copied off Fender pickups from between 1963 and 1964. Okay yes, but what day. Hopefully the pickguard is cut for standard sized Strat pickups just in case someone doesn't want the John Meyer sound.
So my bottom line thoughts. Yes, there is controversy and so there should be. This is a major American guitar manufacture making not much more than a Stratocaster. Knowing Fender, they won't be overly phased by it but the fans of Fender will be. Don't loose the fact that The Silver Sky is still a Strat albeit a beautifully made original. It is pricey at $2300US, that's a thousand bucks more than a Fender US Professional. Ouch! Will we see them in Australia? Possibly not because of the CITES regulations.
I am in no doubt The Silver Sky will be a fine instrument, sound great and play great but would I buy one? Probably not.
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