GEAR REVIEW
PRS SE SILVER SKY | Doug Doppler
KEY FEATURES
• Poplar Body
• 25.5 ” Scale Maple Neck
• 22 Fret Rosewood Fingerboard
• 8.5 ” Fingerboard Radius
• 3 PRS 635JM “ S ” Pickups
• 5-way Blade Pickup Switch
• Two-point Tremolo
• Made in Indonesia
The PRS SE Silver Sky is here , and in a big way . This guitar delivers great feel , tone , and aesthetics at a price point ($ 849.00 ) which is essentially a third of its U . S . counterpart ($ 2,549.00 ). Perhaps more than any other launch we ’ ve seen , this guitar has a wide range of guitarists eyeing this as their next guitar . So , let ’ s dig into why !
FIRST IMPRESSION From the moment I pulled the guitar out of the included gig bag I was sold . First on the list was the feel . While there has been some noise about the 8.5 ” radius of the rosewood fingerboard , it just felt right in my hand , as did the stick-free satin finish . As they say , “ You never get a second chance to make a first impression !”, and my first impression of this guitar was awesome .
THE BIG PICTURE The Silver Sky has been an enormously popular instrument for PRS and for good reason . The combination of a 25.5 scale , bolt-on neck , and trio of single-coil pickups remain a departure from the majority of the instruments in their product line . In so doing Paul Reed Smith and John Mayer pulled their collective expertise together to craft an instrument that gave appropriate vintage nods to Leo Fender ’ s genius , while speaking to modern amenities like increased access to the upper frets . This guitar walked the walk that one of most iconic players of our age needed to ‘ do his thing ’.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that PRS has been an active supporter of the HoW community , and we were excited that they chose us as well as our friends at Worship Tutorials to be part of this launch . More than just another avenue through which they can sell guitars , the PRS team has invested their time in making us feel like we are part of the PRS family . Noting that Gibson and Fender have over 1,000 employees compared to the roughly 150 people PRS employs , that ’ s says a lot about who they are . Per some of the photos in this feature , they ’ ve also invited us to attend Experience PRS , which is a must for any PRS diehard !
HOW DOES IT COMPARE ? Not everyone can march out and buy the USA Silver Sky , so one of the obvious questions is how ‘ dumbed down ’ is the SE ? The short answer is not at all , at least in my opinion . Before we get to the relatively minor differences , it ’ s worth pointing out that I recently bought a used USA CORE Silver Sky that sat in