Help me understand the PRS Silver Sky

[1973Marshall]

I've played them... they some cool but I'd like to understand from the addicts in here what was the appeal over a high end Strat?

Fandom aside... what made you drop the coin to own one?

Was it the large '63-style neck carve?
Do the 3-per-side tuners give a slinkier feel?
Is the feel that different from a Strat in general to you?
Is it that you are PRS lovers and it give you the feel of a Strat with PRS vibes such as the headstock and body? Does that give a preferable feel?
Are the pickups something special versus other choices?
Quality of the finish?
How does it compare to a Suhr or Anderson in your opinion?

 

[Benz2112]

Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No

The neck feels incredible, and the pickups are stellar. Sure the plastics are kind of cheap, sure the neck has a scarf joint*, but it just feels and sounds so right that you dont care.

Edited

 

[Tim Plains]

If I read one more SS thread here I'm going to buy one.

 

[MattyK-USA]

You think that it has a large neck carve?

What volute?!? Not on my Silver Sky.

I do not get some of these posts... maybe I'm missing something, but we are talking about the PRS Silver Sky, right?

 

[Benz2112]

You think that it has a large neck carve?

What volute?!? Not on my Silver Sky.

I do not get some of these posts... maybe I'm missing something, but we are talking about the PRS Silver Sky, right?

I corrected my error, I meant to say scarf joint, that the headstock is a separate piece from the rest of the neck.

 

[PatrickE_FenderADV]

It’s a strat copy with a funky headstock... what’s not to understand?!?

 

[MattyK-USA]

I corrected my error, I meant to say scarf joint, that the headstock is a separate piece from the rest of the neck.

Oh! Got ya, that makes sense. But I think of it having a very streamlined neck - very '64, personally - as opposed to being a large neck as cited by the OP. To me, a large neck carve is what you get with a 62 Nocaster.

Regardless of semantics, I'm with you 100% on the neck feeling fantastic and the pickups being amazing.

 

[Droliver]

It's just a super high quality instrument with the kind of attention to detail that PRS brings to the table. Kind of like a poor man's Suhr (or rich man's Fender American Standard)

 

[PSLUAN]

That guitar is appealing to JM and PRS fans. And there are a lot of them out there, especially JM followers. PRS has other great models but none of them sells like Silver Sky does. If I want a PRS strat, I'd find a used DC3. It has a one piece quarter sawn neck that's a significant upgrade to me. That guitar was a bust mainly because the proprietary pickup they used.

 

[fjrabon]

For me, two things set it apart from a nice custom shop 64 reissue strat:

the pickups are voiced more “hifi” but also have a touch more thickness. It’s almost a magic trick.

the fretwork is better than any CS fender I’ve ever played. They make a 7.5” radius work with impeccable fretwork.

at the same time, nothing about it made me feel like I needed to get one over my AmPro fender either.

 

[blues junkie]

Played a SS and compared it to my Tom Anderson Angel, the Anderson is better in every way.... that being said I still want an SS, I just dont think I would play it much, due to my Anderson being that good.

 

[VaughnC]

While I can't speak for everyone, for me, the Silver Sky has the most authentic, mid 60's, vintage "strat" sound & feel I've found yet in modern recreation, by any manufacturer I've tried, including the Fender Custom Shop. So, IMO, it's a particular "strat" flavor that someone may or may not like or "get". And my point of reference are original '63, '64, &'65 Strats I once owned...so, I personally "get" what the Silver Sky has to offer in tone & feel...but we all hear it different!

And I don't think I've ever listened to a John Mayer song the whole way through so I'm not a fan per se...but we apparently have a similar appreciation for that mid 60's Strat thing. So this old Strat fart of 50 years in the game is happy floating in the clouds of the Silver Sky and not having to pay the price for a vintage Strat! And, for various reasons, I wanted to hate the Silver Sky when I first saw it but, once I got one in my hands, I couldn't!

And, yup, I've played "strats" that I felt were probably better than the Silver Sky at what I'd call the "modern" Strat sound...but the Silver Sky isn't targeted at the modern "strat" player. But we all like what we like!

 

[Gig Young]

I got one because it's about the best sounding Strat I ever played.
The best was an early 60s hardtail.

That I later sold it at a loss as I could not bond with the radius or thin frets

Dagnabbit

 

[Laservampire]

The world's most expensive Yamaha Pacifica.

 

[ford]

I've played one and they are very nice and smooth... guitar is visual to me though and the headstock is hard for me to get past.. that and I've played a couple of other stratish guitars that were equally as good or better.

Great instruments though. Their appeal is understandable.

 

[hippietim]

Here's what comes to mind for me:

1. To me it is at least equivalent to any high-end/boutique Strat type guitar I've ever played. And it is certainly cheaper than a lot of them.
2. You can have a high degree of confidence buying one online (at least new) because of the consistently high quality guitars that leave the PRS factory.
3. It has the most usable bridge pickup I've ever used in any production Strat (and most custom shop guitars as wel)
4. There's some little details too - compared to a typical Strat I like the knobs, switch tip, and tuners better.

 

[ninjaninja88]

Initially, I got one because I knew (or at least waspretty confident) there would be a consistency in the production such that I wouldn’t feel like I had to play through a dozen or so to get one I felt good about.

I’m keeping it because, as noted above, the pickups are voiced beautifully and the neck is fantastic to play.

 

[StratStringSlinger]

I've played them... they some cool but I'd like to understand from the addicts in here what was the appeal over a high end Strat?

Fandom aside... what made you drop the coin to own one?

Was it the large '63-style neck carve?
Do the 3-per-side tuners give a slinkier feel?
Is the feel that different from a Strat in general to you?
Is it that you are PRS lovers and it give you the feel of a Strat with PRS vibes such as the headstock and body? Does that give a preferable feel?
Are the pickups something special versus other choices?
Quality of the finish?
How does it compare to a Suhr or Anderson in your opinion?

Are you primarily a strat player? I think the craze from some long time strat players is that there's refinements that get rid of the warts but still retains the feel and tone of the best vintage strats one can imagine.

For me welcome refinements include:
- Better upper fret access; body joins further up the neck
- Locking tuners that have steel body/style for the same vintage tone but allow for quicker/easier string changes
- Volume knob moved just a tiny bit away so it's still easily reachable with pinky but allows enough room to rest pinky in there
- 3+3 tuners plus tilted headstock removes the need for string tees and helps with tuning stability
- Truss rod adjustment at headstock (true 50's style Fenders and some modern Fenders are like this but many many strat players see the 60's Rosewood freboard as the one)

There's also the totally different company strategy between PRS and Fender.

PRS = they try to make the best guitar possible and have super high quality control.

Fender = they make about a thousand different strats with a mind boggling permutation of specs but non of them are perfect it seems. they make you pay more/upgrade to get every little better spec (wheres with PRS, you get the best at one reasonable price). Fender makes you go on some wild goose chase, magical second cousin of an old employee pickup winder, special materials for pickguard, or even more vintage finish this year, etc etc. And quality control is all over the place; and once again you have to pay if you want their best quality control; which in my experience is still below the standard PRS quality control.

 

[Buck Woodson]

1. Pickups/Sound
2. Neck/Feel

That's about it really.

 

[67super]

That I later sold it at a loss as I could not bond with the radius or thin frets

This^^