The PRS Silver Sky

Every Strat has its Silver Lining...

By Nick Heser

August 15 2018

I never thought I would see the day PRS built a Strat style guitar. However, having personaly spent time with both John and Paul, I could see how that could have changed. Both of these guys have vision, like to push the boundries of whats expected, change details and ruffle feathers. Another thing they posses is a great sense of humor that is equal to their love for high quality guitars. What we have here is the brainchild of two great artists, who are great at what they do. This has be one of the most talked about, loved, hated and controversial guitars built in maybe..... forever. To make things more interesting, most of this banter was flying around before the guitar even made it into the hands of players. The guitar is now out on the market for curious players and Strat enthusiasts to get their anxious and trembling hands on. I am here to tell you the good, the not so bad and the ugly/pretty short of it all. 

Upon receiving the guitar I was very curious to open the case and get into really checking out every little detail. Having grown up owning and playing Strats of all kinds including some vintage models, I was interested to say the least how PRS and John decided to approach the Silver Sky design. I have owned and played many PRS guitars going back to 1994. I have always loved the quality and attention to detail as well as how they always did their own thing when designing a guitar.  But....how well did they do with the classic Strat design in the new  Silver Sky?

Upon opening the case and taking my first glance the guitar was super nice to look at.  It looks much nicer in person than in pictures and videos from the internet. The fit and finish was top notch and the silvery 'Tungsten' paint was classy and simple, showing a nice depth. The hardware is all very nice as usual with PRS. The fret board has a gorgeous piece of rosewood with understated bird inlays. The weight of the Silver Sky was perfect, right in the sweet spot of not heavy and not too light. Strumming a few choice chords revealed a nice ringing acoustic quality with the whole guitar resonating very well as most boutique guitars should. The action was very good out of the box and everything just felt great and very high quality. Typical PRS!

I chose to play this Silver Sky through a few choice amps and pedals. My aim was to get some classic Strat tones as well as some things John usually goes for.  I chose a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Two Rock Studio Pro and a Friedman Dirty Shirley amp. Pedals included an original Silver Klon, Keeley Blues Driver, Ibanez TS808 and an Analogman Sunface Fuzz. After going through the paces with all of these amps and pedals, I realized just how capable the Silver Sky was of getting classic Strat tones with ease. The guitar loved every setup I put it through. But...How does the tone compare to a classic Strat tone? Well I would say it has a bit more of a hi-fi top end and a more distinct, smoky mid range. The guitar has a very crisp and defined voice. Rather than sporting that classic Strat roundness it favors a more detailed and harmonic richness to it's tone. It still works for that classic Strat flavor, it just adds a bit of  harmonic detail to that recipe. It whispers, it screams and it does it all in tune with great accuracy. It simply works!

Playability? This is an area a lot of guitarist are not initially sure about. The dreaded 7.25" radius!!! Well I have to say that most of my playing these days is done on modern guitars with larger radius, and when I play a 7.25" radius I usually don't enjoy it. Somehow the Silver Sky defies this conundrum. It sports a nice lower action with great fretwork and setup. It honestly feels more like a broken in and comfy 9.5" radius than an akward 7.25" I do feel however that even though John and PRS decided to go with the smaller vintage radius, that PRS should have offered to the public a 9.5" radius. Sales would probably have tripled and this is the one gripe (other that the headstock design) we hear the most about. I personally find the radius comfortable, but I think a 9.5" or even 10" radius would have been the better and more well received choice here. 

Overall I would say the guitar is an amazing bargain in the high end Strat market. For a very nice PRS offering, you can get into one of these Silver Sky models for less than any other boutique Strat style guitar. For under $2300. You get a super high quality instrument with excellent Quality Control, great customer service and awesome tones and playability. You even get a nice, high quality hard shell case, which is a rare thing these days at this price point! While the design may not be everyone's cup of tea, the guitar does what one would expect, and does it very well while raising the bar for fit and finish on a vintage Strat style offering. All I can say is if you can find one, play one!

JHS Superbolt, Vintage Supro tones in a little blue box.

Nick Heser

August 14 2018

                                   

Killer vintage Supro overdrive tones, as made famous by the early Led Zeppelin recordings.

The JHS Superbolt V4 is the latest and most updated version of JHS's popular 'Supro in a box' pedal.  The newest version of the pedal offers increased gain, wider tonal range and the clever introduction of an added output jack, for controlling the pedals gain boost switch. With the use of JHS's Red Remote foot switch (sold separately) , Superbolt owners can  toggle between low and high gain setting via footswitch.   This allows for a two channel, amp like operation of the pedal, and when plugged into a clean amp, can turn any amp into a three channel vintage tone beast.  

Tones! The Superbolt V4 has quite a surprising range of tones within it. Grabbing a Strat and plugging the Superbolt into a Fender Super Champ, the tones were big, bold and unapologetic. In a good way! The tones in the low gain setting (blue) were addicting to say the least. Big and massive vintage mojo, akin to early Hendrix and Page. In the lower gain settings the Superbolt sounded very similar to a vintage Fender Tweed amp, yet with a slightly brighter mid range and darker, fluffier low end. The response was VERY dynamic and chalk full of a satisfying 'squish' with every expressive pick attack. Turning up the gain in low gain mode revealed some nice and fat vintage Hendrix tones! Now it was time for a Tele! I plugged in a Fender GE Smith Telecatser and was instantly loving the chirpy Page tones I was getting from it. Led Zepplin I and II tones all the way! As addicting as this set up was I had to put the Tele down and try a Les Paul... I went and procured a 59 reissue Les Paul and decided to switch amps to something a bit more British flavored. This time I ran the Superbolt into the clean channel of a Friedman BE100 (plexi). The results were just as amazing! Huge sounding single note riffs and big harmonic chords were foaming out of the speakers. The pedal was getting great live Zep tones, a bit of Sabbath and even some grunge era tones with ease and conviction. Switching the Superbolt's gain from blue to the high gain red mode added a fat and fuzzy edge to the tone. This is where the fun really starts. The pedals high gain mode sounds like a cranked up vintage tube amp ready to explode, in the most beautiful and satisfying way. You must truly play it to understand how cool it feels.  Inspiration struck me and I decided to throw in some slap back echo from a Strymon Timeline and I was able to get very close to Page's tone on "You shook me" Yes, this pedal is VERY good!

All in all this is a great little pedal like no other, and very inspiring to play! It has a huge amount of volume on tap, can boost amps very well, and sounds like a vintage Supro about to explode. The internal voltage booster allows for it to operate at 18 volts from a 9 volt power supply. This is what give the pedal its incredibly amp like feel and response. If you crave big and fat vintage tones, this little blue box is a winner and worthy of your attention!

Mike Hermans demo of the original Superbolt. The new one (V4) sounds just as good!