PRS Silver Sky DRAMA with Zach Myers and John Mayer???

[Avedas]

Dude from the band Shinedown. It's extremely forgettable music, even for the genre.

Ohhh I remember them! But I'm pretty sure you need to own a Ford F150, wear a camo trucker cap, and chew to listen to them.

 

[mikeymike]

I've just never understood how people even get a guitar to that sort of state, I mean naturally speaking. I have an Epiphone from 1970 and a Korean superstrat from 1987 and neither of them has worn through the finish anywhere despite decades of being played. How are people wearing off entire blotches of finish? I get the nicks and scrapes thing, but I genuinely don't understand how what's happened to the top of that Silver Sky can happen naturally.

Yeah... real beaters generally don't look like that. Look at like Rory Gallagher's old strat or SRV's strat and they don't have the same "lemme take a belt sander to the paint job" type damage .

You guys are woefully uneducated about nitro and how it ages. To answer your question in a nutshell, poly finishes (your average modern guitar finish) are very durable. they've been in use a very long time (fender stopped using nitro in the late 60s) and thus your experience is likely based on your knowledge of poly durability. There are highway 1 strats with thin nitro finishes that look exactly like the guitar in op's shared video and those highway 1 strats were made in the mid 2000s. I know a professional musician who has one and it's very much worn like that. Which brings me to my second point, the way certain musicians who play professionally see their instruments vs someone who plays at home as a hobby (no slight intended or implied whatsoever) will usually differ substantially. If you play a guitar endlessly because you love it and it goes to every show with you it will wear, even poly ones. They won't look like SRV'S number one but they will have tons of aging. Nitro just ages very differently, that's just how it is.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I've just never understood how people even get a guitar to that sort of state, I mean naturally speaking. I have an Epiphone from 1970 and a Korean superstrat from 1987 and neither of them has worn through the finish anywhere despite decades of being played. How are people wearing off entire blotches of finish? I get the nicks and scrapes thing, but I genuinely don't understand how what's happened to the top of that Silver Sky can happen naturally.

It doesn't really happen outside of certain Fenders from the 50's and 60's. Even old Gibsons and other legacy brands don't tend to age as such.

A lot of this has to do with how Fender was doing nitro back then: fairly haphazardly.

You're not going to get it on more modern stuff, even by the late 60's finish processes were advancing to the point that they were thicker and stronger.

Even then, if you "luck" into an old Fender with a thin, poorly mixed finish, you have to play the absolute fuck out of it. I'm not talking a few hours a week of practice and a gig a couple times a week. We're talking several hours a day, gigs five nights a week, just absolutely live with the thing in your hands.

That's why there are so many copies, because they're rare as Hell and the idea that you're so devoted that you play the finish off is appealing to those who don't/can't do that.

It's funny. One of the most common questions I'd get as a tech would be how come someone's guitar didn't look like Stevie's. Folks didn't usually like the truth: your guitar is too nice and you don't practice enough.

 

[electriceye]

I would laugh my ass off if someone called me bitching about a color I painted one of my guitars.

The more pissed off they got the harder I’d laugh.

JFC

I would immediately go out and buy 5 more and paint them all pink.

 

[mikeymike]

It doesn't really happen outside of certain Fenders from the 50's and 60's.

Practically every single vintage fender until they stopped using nitro (not all finishes were nitro even before the change, fender used lucite for nearly every metallic finish) is worn because of how nitro wears.

you have to play the absolute fuck out of it. I'm not talking a few hours a week of practice and a gig a couple times a week.

Funny that's nearly identical to my acquaintance's playing schedule and his guitar looks well on its way to SRV territory

That's why there are so many copies, because they're rare as Hell

Exactly how many mint condition pre-cbs fenders do you run across in your career as a tech? I'm going to go out on a limb and say the worn ones are not rare at all, it's the closet classics that you never see and when you do they fetch a LOT more.

It's funny. One of the most common questions I'd get as a tech would be how come someone's guitar didn't look like Stevie's

Because they're probably playing a poly finish. Fender didnt use all nitro as I mentioned previously, they used acrylic (Lucite) for nearly every metallic finish (yes all of those classic metallic finishes are actually acrylic not nitro.) The nitro finishes are Dupont Duco and the palette constitutes all the plain colors you know and love like fiesta red, Olympic white, shell pink, seafoam/surf green, daphne blue, etc etc.

Edit: I might add that while some finishes weren't nitro the clear was. If I'm not mistaken all finishes were sealed in with a nitro clear. This explains the yellowing you see over Olympic white etc.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Practically every single vintage fender until they stopped using nitro (not all finishes were nitro even before the change, fender used lucite for nearly every metallic finish) is worn because of how nitro wears.

Funny that's nearly identical to my acquaintance's playing schedule and his guitar looks well on its way to SRV territory

Exactly how many mint condition pre-cbs fenders do you run across in your career as a tech? I'm going to go out on a limb and say the worn ones are not rare at all, it's the closet classics that you never see and when you do they fetch a LOT more.

Because they're probably playing a poly finish. Fender didnt use all nitro as I mentioned previously, they used acrylic (Lucite) for nearly every metallic finish (yes all of those classic metallic finishes are actually acrylic not nitro.) The nitro finishes are Dupont Duco and the palette constitutes all the plain colors you know and love like fiesta red, Olympic white, shell pink, seafoam/surf green, daphne blue, etc etc.

Edit: I might add that while some finishes weren't nitro the clear was. If I'm not mistaken all finishes were sealed in with a nitro clear. This explains the yellowing you see over Olympic white etc.

I'd say most pre-CBS fall into the very light relic category, nothing like the guitar in the OP. Having huge swaths of missing finish on the front was very uncommon. The "closet classic" was common enough, a bunch of checking and some gassing, but no big finish chips/worn spots.

Unfortunately, in the 80's and into the 90's the super worn look was very popular so a lot of closet classics were artificially worn-in to some level of relic. But they did exist.

I have handled dead mint pre-CBS stuff and it's rare, but it's out there. Mostly as "vault" pieces at places like NRG or MVG.

 

[JimF]

Having a relic guitar is like letting someone else bang your girl so she becomes more experienced.

But ultimately I get to enjoy a broken-in final product with the character I like?...

 

[NoodleFace]

My guess is because hes also a PRS artist, hes kind of beating another PRS artist to the punch. Probably nothing they can do legally, but the company might be pissed two artists are stepping on eachothers toes.

 

[jephjacques]

Mayer sucks shit lmao

 

[Vinoo Matthew]

Yeah... real beaters generally don't look like that. Look at like Rory Gallagher's old strat or SRV's strat and they don't have the same "lemme take a belt sander to the paint job" type damage .

Maybe he got the Fender Custom Shop to relic it. They would've done it with great glee and that could have made Little John and the PRS unhappy. Here's how they do it:

 

[surge]

Remember, these Silver Sky guitars cost a couple hundo to make (if that, wood, parts and labor combined), and the limited edition colors sell for thousands.
They're making a lot of money selling to people who buy these things. They want total control over the profits and the colors and all that.
It's a disgusting greedy scumbag business, but that's capitalism. Those private jets ain't gonna pay for themselves.
I'd call it a scam, but there's people who willingly give their hard earned money to buy them...and they're not like on drugs or being manipulated or anything, they're just happy to get them, so I mean wtf ::

Maybe if John Mayer scratched his balls and then signed the back before the finish gets put on, and a pubic hair gets trapped under the finish...I mean surely there's someone who would pay at least 10 grand for that. There's an idea. I expect a commission fee, Paul.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Sounds like bullshit to me

The more I look into this guy the more I think it's bullshit too.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I think it looks awesome! For me, I would probably choose a different color, but it came out great

 

[SCJR]

Mayer sucks shit lmao

Minus a couple of duds I thought his Born and Raised album was pretty good.

The more I look into this guy the more I think it's bullshit too.

Definitely has that bullshitt-y "I want to appear humble and don't want the attention but as soon as a camera or microphone is in front me I can't help myself" vibe.

 

[jaxadam]

Dude from the band Shinedown. It's extremely forgettable music, even for the genre.

I sat next to those assholes at Ruth’s Chris one night and they were very boring. Very. Maybe they were just jealous of all the talent at our table.

 

[Steinmetzify]

My wife met JM at a club one night while I was elsewhere with friends.

Said he was very full of himself and acted really butthurt that she wasn’t interested.

The exact words out of his mouth were ‘don’t you know who I am? I could have any woman in this club!’

She laughed and said “not any of us.”

 

[RevelGTR]

I’m extremely pro butt rock but Shinedown is terrible.

 

[SCJR]

I sat next to those assholes at Ruth’s Chris one night and they were very boring. Very. Maybe they were just jealous of all the talent at our table.

Simplicity or lack of guitar acrobatics in any kind of music is nothing I would normally disparage but it's like they're trying to make a professionally-polished soundtrack to a bunch of 10 year olds' rockstar fantasies. Just beyond generic.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

Shine down has a few great songs… you guys sure are cranky.

 

[jaxadam]

Shine down has a few great songs… you guys sure are cranky.

Well, none of them are off of their album “Dinner at Ruth’s Chris”.