New PRS Silver Sky

[Futuron]

Even in the ad copy they make reference to wanting to make it like his '63 and '64 vintage instruments' or some such nonsense. But the one word they don't dare utter is what these are ... they're bloody Strats!! Fenders!!

I actually laughed when I saw that reference... thinking, "hmmm, I wonder what his vintage instruments may have been?"





It's an expensive signature Strat for people who hate Fender. Simple as that. Also PRS giving Fender a big middle finger for not having the Strat design patented back when they could've

[Kent]

No hardcase unless you buy one of the first 500.

If people were halfway intelligent, then PRS would not sell more than 500 of those. So: hardcase included, yeah!

I think that this is exactly what they've forecast. Only 500 cases needed.

There seems to be a LOT PRS dislike here and I can see why given the raison d'être of this forum. No big deal. I would, however, like to put forward that the David Grissom DGT is a fucking awesome guitar. It's the only one that appeals to me and I've played a handful of 'em including a pilot build.

[Singlebladepickup]

My friend had a prs from his high school days. He wasn't a douche and didn't listen to bad music, but he did pair it with a mesa boogie head...anyway, I really liked the neck on that guitar. It was all rosewood and I don't know whether it was oiled or unfinished but it felt smooth. I've wanted an all rosewood neck like that ever since, without the fucked up headstock though.

I'm not really mad at John Mayer or PRS for making this guitar. Sure, it's a strat that in no way took 2 1/2 years of careful study to design. Nothing new about it. However, if you accept that Mayer lied and only cares about money, and PRS wanted to sell a few strat copies, who cares? I'll never buy one but the world won't be worse because a few more strat copies exist, and now they have lame headstocks and bird inlays. Nothing to be upset about.

[supafuzz666]

No hardcase unless you buy one of the first 500.

If people were halfway intelligent, then PRS would not sell more than 500 of those. So: hardcase included, yeah!

Very true, most of them will probably never leave the house/law practice/man cave for fear of putting a dent in it and losing 50% of the resale value. And I’m sure many of them are fine instruments/sound great. But I’ve never seen a guitar player, whose playing I like/admire play one.

[marqueemoon]

My friend had a prs from his high school days. He wasn't a douche and didn't listen to bad music, but he did pair it with a mesa boogie head...anyway, I really liked the neck on that guitar. It was all rosewood and I don't know whether it was oiled or unfinished but it felt smooth. I've wanted an all rosewood neck like that ever since, without the fucked up headstock though.

I'm not really mad at John Mayer or PRS for making this guitar. Sure, it's a strat that in no way took 2 1/2 years of careful study to design. Nothing new about it. However, if you accept that Mayer lied and only cares about money, and PRS wanted to sell a few strat copies, who cares? I'll never buy one but the world won't be worse because a few more strat copies exist, and now they have lame headstocks and bird inlays. Nothing to be upset about.

I'm not mad about it. It has all the originality of John Mayer's music.

If PRS cared primarily about money I think they might have done something less blatantly derivative, because if you don't give a shit about John Mayer there are dozens of high end Strat-alikes for blooze lawyers to choose from.

[jbiscuti]

Not surprised at the disdain for the guitar, but am surprised at all the disdain for Mayer's guitar playing.

[shadowplay]

Not surprised at the disdain for the guitar, but am surprised at all the disdain for Mayer's guitar playing.

I'm not sure I dislike his guitar playing so much as dislike his blandodude voice, his forgettable and formulaic songs and every recorded peep I've had the misfortune to hear. It's beige music for Grammy purposes and I'm not sure his playing matters one little bit if the actual music is totally pants, it's not as if you can retrofit your record player with some sort of audio mass spectrometer that sifts out only guitar and leaves the mall blooze and lighter ballads behind. Picking the guitar out is like being asked what you thought of the soup and telling them to just give you the croutons the next time and flush the minestrone.

He's also a bit of a dick by all accounts, like some sort of added bonus dislike multiplier.

Sounds like I'm singling him out but near every time I hear someone mentions someones guitar playing instead of their songs I find myself wondering if the recommender even likes music.

D

[Telliot]

I may not enjoy Mayer’s brand of music or his style of guitar playing, but I’ve always admired his technique and control. The guy is very good, and he’s inspired an entire generation of new guitar players. He rubs me all kinds of wrong in almost every other category, but I have to give credit where it’s due.

[shadowplay]

The guy is very good, and he’s inspired an entire generation of new guitar players.

OK i'll play along, who was inspired by John Mayer to make good records? Google tells me Ed Sheeren is an admirer which is handy since he's pretty beige for Grammy purposes. There's apparently some guy called Sean Mendes (sadly not related to The Goat of Mendes) but he makes Ed Sheeren look like Nocturnal Emissions, so beige for Grammy purposes is he.

I imagine it's the sort of thing you hear while waiting outside the changing rooms in a US dept store.

Maybe this is some sort of parallel universe USA thing that totally doesn't translate across the water (like Mad Mikes replies to me in the Rock is Dead thread) or maybe it's like Oasis who inspired a lot of kids to pick up the guitar and generally form bands even more hateful than the Oasis patient zero, something that the worlds top scientists are still trying to get to grips with.

D

[Jaguar018]

he’s inspired an entire generation of new guitar players.

I don't know how I feel about this.

Usually when Shadowplay rails on blooze players I have to take into account that he popped out of the womb as a baby with fully sentient musical tastes suited to moors and cold winter rain. This is not to say that I don't agree with his takes on popular and not-so-popular music 95% of the time-- because I do, but when it comes to the blues and/or 'tha blooze' there is a certain bit of growing up in America that helps bridge a few gaps.

I have certainly enjoyed some of the 80s blues noodlers like SRV, Robert Cray, and Bonnie Raitt-- not to to the point of still owning their albums. I grew up listening to classic rock-- all the people that have been playing, interpreting and/or ripping off blues for decades. The next generation with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derrick Trucks are now established tour veterans. John Mayer is one of those 'crossover guys.' He can sing smarmy pop songs, wail on guitar, bed babes with questionable tastes, and blather on Instagram about his schweet gear.

Like it or not, many an aspiring guitarist would also love to wail on guitar, bed babes with questionable tastes, and blather on Instagram about gear. Maybe a few of these players (literal, figural) will go beyond the superficial level and get really good while making meaningful music. I'd guess .01%. The rest will make a bunch of shit music that will go nowhere, or set the foundation for the next generation of toolbags to come.

A PRS made Strat is PERFECT for Mayer. To me it's the embodiment of just about everything he stands for: a highly-functioning American made rip-off of a classic that nobody needs-- yet it exists all the same.

[Telliot]

Let me clarify:

What I meant was every generation tends to have their heroes. For a lot of kids who are into the 'rock' genre, there tends to be a group of players who inspire them to pick up and learn an instrument. In the 'guitar god' category, there seemed to be a gap in my estimation. Many, many people bought into the Oasis/Nirvana scene (many of us didn't), but there were certainly crops of new players that were borne from that exposure. Whether they went on to become famous -- or even good -- is irrelevant. The point is they saw an image of a guy holding a guitar and liked what they heard, and were inspired to go buy something similar to what that guy played. For the kids who weren't around for the Oasis/Nirvana hype, someone like John Mayer would be easily accessible (I guess the UK equivalent would be Ed Sheeran). He got tons of airplay, he had a certain mass appeal, and he could play. I may not like what he did, or even what he may have inspired, but the larger point is that I give these guys credit for inspiring people to discover a love of playing and creating music regardless of my opinions on the music they might play or create.

[s_mcsleazy]

so prs have gone from making posh gibsons to posh fenders.

im going to call it here and if this turns out to be the case, someone owes me a bottle of joker ipa. in the next 5 years, we're gonna get a tele style prs

[jbiscuti]

Not surprised at the disdain for the guitar, but am surprised at all the disdain for Mayer's guitar playing.

I'm not sure I dislike his guitar playing so much as dislike his blandodude voice, his forgettable and formulaic songs and every recorded peep I've had the misfortune to hear. It's beige music for Grammy purposes and I'm not sure his playing matters one little bit if the actual music is totally pants, it's not as if you can retrofit your record player with some sort of audio mass spectrometer that sifts out only guitar and leaves the mall blooze and lighter ballads behind. Picking the guitar out is like being asked what you thought of the soup and telling them to just give you the croutons the next time and flush the minestrone.

He's also a bit of a dick by all accounts, like some sort of added bonus dislike multiplier.

Sounds like I'm singling him out but near every time I hear someone mentions someones guitar playing instead of their songs I find myself wondering if the recommender even likes music.

D

So...his playing is ok?

[shadowplay]

So...his playing is ok?

No awful. For me his music is shite to the power ten. I literally couldn’t care less if he can play or is some sort of guitar virtuoso, if the music is crap then his playing is crap. Isn’t the whole point of playing to make good music?

In fact if you can play anything and your music is crap then you are genuinely a wrong un, because you actually choose to be crap and it’s not a mere byproduct of a lack of skill.

One of the wonders of music is that someone who can barely play can make a better record than someone with a signature PRS.

Give him a piano and he’s Gary Barlow.

D

[Telliot]