PRS Guitars John Mayer Silver Sky

Flying in the Silver Sky

John Mayer is a walking contradiction. Thanks to hits like "Your Body is a Wonderland" and "Daughters," he is one of the biggest pop stars walking the earth today. He could probably spend the rest of his life filling arenas with people drawn to his catchy, cleverly written pop tunes. But, Mayer decided to forge a different path, because he is also one of the biggest guitar nerds breathing! After all, he's the same person who worked long hours at a gas station as a teenager so he could afford an SRV signature Strat.

Mayer's appreciation for the blues runs deep, and so do his skills. But don't take my word for it: ask Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy, because he has collaborated with all of them. Finally, to top it off, Mayer started playing with Bob Weir in the Dead & Company! Frankly, he may be the only musician with the range to play Grateful Dead tunes with 3/5ths of the Grateful Dead one night, jam with B.B. King the next, and play a recording session with rapper Travis Scott the next.

Players of John's caliber often find themselves drawn to Paul Reed Smith, and in 2015 the two collaborated on the PRS Super Eagle. After that was a runaway success, they pondered their next endeavor. Would it be possible to capture the magic of John Mayer's favorite vintage axes from the sixties in an affordable guitar that paid homage to classic designs while also presenting a new point of view? After two and a half years of arduous research and development, they discovered that such a feat of design was possible. We are proud to present the fruit of their collaboration: the PRS Silver Sky.

Vintage Mojo in Every Guitar

John and Paul's main goal in designing the Silver Sky was to make it so that each and every guitar had similar vintage mojo. So, Paul dissected what made a couple of John's favorite '63s and '64s so special and tried to incorporate what he learned into the build. As a result of this historical research, each Silver Sky is imbued with serious classic vibe. Speaking from personal experience, I (Trevor, the resident Wildwood Web Scribe) have played a ton of Silver Skies since they came out, and each one has had the same sort of vintage-accurate tone. Achieving such incredible consistency from guitar to guitar is truly a wondrous feat of modern design and engineering!

So, what is this vintage sound that Paul and John found? Well, for starters, each pickup has a round, warm personality. They sound smooth and glassy when you play softly, but the glass breaks and becomes sharp and cutting when you dig in. Each pickup is also quite clear, with excellent balance and an articulate attack that captures every detail of your right-hand technique. Having such a wide dynamic range with such impeccable clarity makes for a remarkably expressive playing experience!

Specifically, the bridge pickup has tight, taut low-end to go with chirping midrange and glorious bell-like jangle, sparkle, and clang in the highs. The middle position is full and balanced, with beefier lows and broader, meatier midrange to go with sunny chime in the highs. The neck pickup is quite Hendrixian, with robust, full-bodied lows along with righteously smooth highs and throaty, vocal midrange. Though you could certainly find similarities between the Silver Sky's tone and the tone of Mayer's Strat-toting hero SRV, the Silver Sky is its own animal. It trades a little bit of Texas heat and barbecue bite for a bit of East Coast refinement and elegance, and the results are lovely. Even though it draws its inspiration from classic sources, the Silver Sky has unique, special flavors in its sonic cocktail.

Your Fretboard is a Wonderland

Of course, any Maryland-made guitar with bird inlays on the fretboard is going to feel excellent in your hands, and the Silver Sky is no exception. It has a truly glorious JM635 neck profile that feels so vintage-accurate you'd swear someone Frankenstein-ed a vintage neck to a modern body. PRS did a bang-up job of recreating the feel of John's favorite old guitars, and they added a little modern flair with a reverse 3-on-a-side PRS headstock.

For additional vintage vibe, they gave the fretboard a 7.25" radius, which makes this guitar play like no other PRS on the planet. Guitars with 7.25" radii are usually easy to chord on, but a bit difficult to play leads and do big bends on. But, this is not your usual vintage-radius guitar! Paul Reed Smith took pains to make sure that the Silver Sky plays as beautifully as any PRS with a flatter radius, and discerning modern players will be amazed at its buttery handfeel.

The Sound of Silver

We are pleased to present the John Mayer Silver Sky for our exceptional customers. We believe it combines PRS's precision engineering with vintage heart and soul, which makes for incredible build quality and incredibly inspirational tone, and we invite you to take one for a spin and fly high in the friendly silver skies. Once you do, we're sure you'll never want to come back down.