PRS Silver Sky Electric Guitar, Rosewood Fingerboard, Faded Black Tee Satin

The PRS Silver Sky is a fresh take on some of modern guitar's standby designs. Forged in the flame of professional collaboration between musician John Mayer and guitar maker Paul Reed Smith, the first Silver Sky came together in pursuit of a concise sum: vintage specification with modern aesthetic. Years of work and deliberation preceded the Silver Sky, but today it exists as a masterwork of collaboration as well as an ode to the proverbial guitarist old and new. Balancing these two worlds, Mayer describes the Silver Sky as, “My vision of what a reboot of the electric guitar should look and feel like.”

As if lifted from some alternate musical timeline, the Silver Sky embodies multiple facets of guitar design across history – from those that stood the test of time to the most recent and relevant. The Silver Sky sought to embody the archetype of the vintage single-coil guitar while setting its own standard for modern sensibilities. With this ethos, this electric guitar "reboot" came to form.

PRS and Mayer set their sights on the Silver Sky starting out simply with a classic body wood pick of alder. This double-cutaway, carefully contoured and effortlessly comfortable body carries with it a familiar feel to other double-cutaways across time, yet has that distinct PRS eye for care when it comes to precise shaping. The solid body design features a PRS Flat Top carve and makes for a smooth and svelte feel across the entire alder cut while serving as a lively sonic engine from which acoustic and electric tonality can bloom.

This version of the Silver Sky is wrapped in a Faded Black Tee satin finish that connects with a silky texture to the touch. A bolt-on maple neck joins the alder to establish the basis of this guitar’s physical form. This particular Silver Sky features a PRS 635JM-R neck shape that has been subtly modified from the original 635JM neck and fills a more rounded shape in the shoulders to fit differently in hand. As a product of Smith’s examinations of vintage necks and Mayer’s trials of guitars onstage, this carefully modified neck profile offers a new angle on the Silver Sky feel.

A rosewood fingerboard joins the Silver Sky formula on this model. With a radius of 7.25”, this fingerboard feels comfortable and precise across the six strings with a particularly rounded, vintage feel. Twenty-two frets laid across a 25.5” scale length open up the guitar completely for exploration of the highest and lowest registers with ease. PRS Small Birds fret inlays adorn the rosewood for that required flourish of PRS authenticity and style. A bone nut lands at the end of the board and acts as a gate to the reverse-oriented PRS headstock, specially designed by Mayer to accommodate for consistent string length. PRS Vintage-Style Locking tuners join together on the headstock and feature a more traditional assembly with closed backs and PRS’s locking design for ultimate stability in tuning.

The coal that fuels this Silver Sky’s sonic engine takes the form of three 635JM single-coil pickups. A classic pickup configuration seen across plenty of iconic guitars spanning generations, this specific assortment of single-coils sings with a unified voice that chimes with a rounded and full audio profile. Retaining an charming and instantly-recognizable single-coil sound but while carrying its own unique character, the three pickups of the Silver Sky play into the resonant alder body for a stellar conversion of sound. The playability of these pickups is enhanced by the integration of a steel tremolo bridge. This particular bridge, incorporating patented PRS tremolo design, utilizes Gen III knife-edge screws that are set flush to the body in its neutral position. Resulting in a design that only allows the tremolo to go downward in pitch, this tremolo embodies sturdy accuracy for deep vibrato bends with no altering of intonation.

The PRS Silver Sky manifests generations of electric guitar design, both forward-thinking and reverent. Between its vintage mindfulness and modern playability, the Silver Sky is an endlessly exciting instrument for players across time. Fashioned with clear intention and vision, this guitar is a modern musical treasure incarnate.