John Mayer has made it pretty clear that he sees the Silver Sky as an elevated electric guitar built for the modern age. It shuns old-school finishes in favor of sleeker stylistic choices, which are largely inspired by the consumer tech we surround ourselves with today.
That may have been his intention for his signature guitar, but that hasn’t stopped people taking creative liberties with the Silver Sky. And we’ve seen some pretty hefty DIY mod jobs over the years.
We had Zach Myers’ insane relic’d pink model, which predated Mayer’s actual Roxy Pink example. There was also a sunburst Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute Silver Sky. Neal Schon stuck a Floyd Rose on his.
Mayer has seen all of these mod jobs, and while they may seem at odds with his curated vision for the Silver Sky platform, he is actually very fond of them. In fact, he’s highly encouraging of it.
When asked by Guitar World if he approved of these jobs, Mayer gave a strong vote of confidence.
“I love it,” he says. “Hack it all you want. I think it’s important – like, you’re supposed to. If you want to, you have my blessing to do whatever comes to mind with it.”
Mayer has gone on record before to say there will never be a sunburst Silver Sky, but he’s not against players taking matters into their own hands. For him, the sunburst ‘thing’ just wasn’t what he had in mind for his signature model.
“I use the sunburst as the brown M&M,” he notes. “The brown M&M checks the contract. No sunburst reinforces the contract with what the mission statement of the guitar is.
“If I started a guitar in 2018, why would I do sunburst? Because that’s how you do it? Well, I didn’t do it. That’s not part of my history. You know what I mean?
“But what is part of my life, which could be future history, is when I see colors. Mojave Brown [which was used on an earlier Silver Sky] comes from a thing, that when I saw it, I went, ‘I’ve got to use that color.’”
So, there you have it. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your Silver Sky. You’ve got Mayer’s approval.
Guitar World sat down with John Mayer earlier this month to talk about his new collaboration with Land Rover and the Defender Silver Sky models – which, the timeline confirms, is not a dig at Fender.
