Ryan's Gig Guide - April 2018

Recently, the lads at Guitar Guitar in Birmingham got a sneak preview of the PRS John Mayer Silver Sky. A guitar which saw the collaboration of John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith that has been on the minds of guitar enthusiasts and Mayer fans for the past two years. PRS is unequivocally revoked as a master for attention to detail when implementing design in guitars. Their rapid growth and reputation is the result of years of ingenuity and production of consistently high- quality instruments. The brand's parade of quality products enticed Mayer and slowly PRS began to appear amongst his entourage of gear. The Fender Stratocaster is a staple amongst Mayer’s collection. It only makes sense that the guitar he has helped create takes the form of this illustrious icon. Despite its time at the forefront of guitar design, the Strat has avoided being characterised as mundane. Often adopted by equally iconic musicians, its shape has been imprinted across many brands, often acting as a starting point for manufacturers to build on. PRS are not the first to try and reimagine the Strat and without a doubt, they will not be the last. This take on a classic is not intended to send its counterparts into subordination, rather be a quality addition to the plethora of renditions of a classic design. So how does it sound? You guessed it! Like a Strat. The pickup and neck design for this guitar came about through an amalgamation of a 63 and 64 Stratocaster, so if it sounded or felt like anything else, they would have been unsuccessful. The end result breathes an aura of vintage feel and sound into a modern innovation. The number 635 is a subtle acknowledgement of where the profile and pickup voicing originated. Designed to be somewhere in between the two, sixty-three and a half makes an apt title. It appears as though not a single arbitrary choice seeped through the discussions that took place during the long wait for its release. By Adam Roberts !"#$#%&'()$#*+ WWW. R YA N S G I G G U I D E . C OM rgg Apr 2018 - p.20