PRS Silver Sky

first play
PRS SILVER SKY
10
Guitarist MaY 2018
RE-VOICING THE
SINGLE COIL
PRS went through at least
eight sets of prototype
pickups before John Mayer
was happy. Hoping that
they’d nailed it, Paul took
a prototype Silver Sky to
John. “He plugged in his ’64
Strat, then he plugged in the
new guitar – with the same
physical pickup specs – but
it didn’t sound close to the
same. He liked the one we
had but he wanted it better.
I said I can’t fi x it unless you
loan me your ’64 Strat and
we put your pickups up on
our test screen. He gave it to
me for one day. I put his neck
pickup on our screen and it
did not look like our pickup.
I had to call an electrical
engineer to fi nd out why. We
fi nally fi gured it out – God,
it was painful. I had one day
to do a year’s worth of work.
But what you’re hearing is
the result of that day’s work
and I’m happy. See there was
a piece of physics I didn’t
understand but when I got my
hands around the physics I
could fi x the problem.”
1963-4, the finish doesn’t. Yes, the slab-sawn,
spliced-head maple neck has a lightly toned
gloss nitrocellulose finish, but the body uses
a polyester base coat with acrylic urethane
top coat. “We have switched formulas
several times in the finish hall – always in
search of the best,” we’re told. “V12 was
our original term for crystalline acrylic
urethane. We stopped using the term years
ago [er, it’s still on your website]. But, the
essence of the finish is the same – just the
formula continually changes.” Purposely,
however, there’s no finish inside the pickup
routes so that “the wood can breathe over
time,” says PRS.
PRS might be known for its 635mm (25-
inch) scale length that sits between Fender
and Gibson standard but here, of course,
we’re chasing the Stratocaster so, like the
305 and a couple of SEs, it’s the correct
Most modern makers – aside from
copyists and fakers – that use the
Stratocaster as a start-point subtly alter the
guitar’s classic outline, and the Silver Sky is
no different. Starting off where the PRS DC3
left off, the primary change lies in the treble
cutaway which isn’t as deep although that’s
compensated for by PRS’s trademarked
scoop. The bass-side cutaway reaches
into the body a little more too and the tip
of the heel has a curved nose although no
contouring like many choose to add. While
PRS’s original bolt-ons used exactly the
same neck design as the glued-neck models
(with its own heel and an extension that sits
under the neck pickup), like the DC3 this is
a Fender-style, held to the body with four
machine screws through a black-plated
metal neckplate bearing the model name
and artist signature.
Body wood is alder (spec’d as two or three-
piece although under the opaque finish it’s
impossible to tell) and we get the expected
contours and big edge radius.
Speaking of finish, while much of the
guitar references the Stratocaster circa
The Silver Sky is visually, sonically, even
in feel and hardware choice, the most
Strat-like guitar ever produced by PRS
1. The alder body is only
offered in four opaque
colours, each with
a slightly different
colour applied to PRS’s
trademarked scoop on
the treble cutaway
1
GIT432.rev_prs.indd 10 3/20/18 5:24 PM