A genuine “guitar hero” in the traditional sense, John Mayer is a player who not only inspires others to listen, but to also to play themselves. Apart from his wildly successful career as a solo singer-songwriter, John tours as a member of Dead & Company and occasionally performs with his own John Mayer Trio. Over the course of his career, John has amassed seven Grammys and been nominated nineteen times since 2003.
John’s collaboration with PRS began with the Private Stock Super Eagle, a guitar designed for use out on the road with Dead & Company. This partnership would go on to birth the J-MOD signature amplifier, and ultimately his wildly successful Silver Sky signature model. The Silver Sky rapidly became one of our most popular guitars, leading to the release of the SE Silver Sky.
The PRS Silver Sky is an idealized version of a vintage single-coil guitar where every detail adds up and sets this guitar apart from the pack and the past. The result of a close collaboration between Grammy Award-winning musician John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith, the Silver Sky is based off of years of development. Incorporating Mayer and Smith’s favorite elements of 1963 and 1964 instruments with an eye toward modern references, the PRS Silver Sky delivers the warmth and familiarity of an old guitar with the finesse of a brand-new instrument.
Some of the more distinctive specifications include, the headstock shape, tuners, bridge, pickups, and neck and fretboard options. The headstock shape is based on PRS’s trademark design, but inverted both to accommodate Mayer’s playing style and also to keep a consistent length of string behind the nut, which makes staying in tune easier. The tuners are a traditional vintage-style, closed-back tuner, but with PRS’s locking design. The steel tremolo takes the patented PRS design and incorporates Gen III knife-edge screws.
Setup flush to the body in the neutral position so that the tremolo bridge only goes down in pitch, the bridge’s increased contact with the body allows the guitar itself to be acoustically louder, which in turn improves the signal to noise ratio of the single-coil pickups. The 635JM single-coil pickups are very round and full, with a musical high end that is never “ice-picky” or brash.The Silver Sky comes with the option of a rosewood or maple fretboard. The maple fretboard option comes with the original 635JM neck shape, while the rosewood fretboard option has been subtly modified in the shoulders to feel more “rounded” in your hand. Both neck shapes were designed by researching vintage instruments and Mayer test-driving guitars on stage to find what felt right. The fretboard radius on both options is 7.25”.
Other high-quality specifications include a bone nut, a molded metal jack plate (curved to make plugging and unplugging a guitar cable hassle-free), retooled knobs, and PRS’s double action truss rod (accessible from the front of the headstock for ease of use). PRS premium gig bag included.
SPECIFICATIONS
Body Construction
Solidbody
Truss Rod
PRS Double-Acting
Neck Shape
635JM-R (Rosewood Fretboard)
Neck Depth at the 1/2 Fret
55/64
Neck Depth at the 12 1/2 Fret
63/64
Neck Width at the Nut
1 21/32"
Neck Width at the Body
2 15/64"
Fretboard Inlay
Small Birds
Headstock Logo
Signature, Decal
Neck/Body Assembly Type
Bolt-On
Finish Type
High-Gloss Nitro
Tuners
Vintage-Style, Locking
Controls
One Volume and Two Tone Controls with a 5-Way Blade Pickup Switch
Strings
PRS Signature 10-46
Tuning
Standard (6 String): E, A, D, G, B, E
Meet the “Dead Spec" Silver Sky - a 1000 piece limited run built exactly like the guitar John played on tour with Dead & Company. The instrument features a satin finished swamp ash body guitar that features a brass nut, a hold down bar at the headstock, a fixed bridge paired with a brass block in the cavity, and an Alembic Blaster Preamp. The Alembic Blaster Preamp provides an adjustable decibel boost controlled by a switch near the output jack. All of these components combine to create a truly unique tone that Paul and John are eager to share with the world.
