Zach Myers reveals how John Mayer’s Black1 Fender Strat inspired the heavy relic job on his PRS Silver Sky

Since it first debuted in 2018, John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky signature guitar has been subjected to a number of aesthetic reboots, and is now available in a wealth of futuristic colors, including Dodgem Blue, Moc Sand Satin, Polar Blue and Tungsten.

We have not, however, ever seen a PRS Silver Sky quite like this one: a pink, heavy relic’d version owned by fellow PRS player Zach Myers, which was inspired by Mayer’s old Black1 Fender Stratocaster.

Speaking to Premier Guitar, Myers revealed his own Silver Sky began life as a white version, which he then had custom-painted pink. That’s right: that means Myers had the first-ever pink Silver Sky before the official Roxy Pink iteration was unveiled.

“I don’t know if it’s going to get me in trouble or not,” Myers said when showcasing his six-string. “This is a pink John Mayer Silver Sky, but it was not originally pink. It was white, and I had it painted pink before he released the pink guitar.”

Safe to say the radical revamp ruffled some feathers over at PRS HQ, with Myers recalling he received “an upset phone call” after he had sought out his friend to complete the refinish and relic.

He continued, “I don’t know if it was [Mayer] that was upset – I’ll just say someone was upset that I had my own white guitar painted pink. I got an upset phone call and they were like, ‘Well, what if other artists want a pink guitar and you have one?

“Listen, I’ve been with PRS for 25 years now – I have the greatest relationship of all time with all of them.”

However, eagle-eyed John Mayer fans will no doubt get a sense of deja vu when looking at Myers’ custom Silver Sky. It was, after all, inspired by the Sob Rock star’s old Black1 Fender Stratocaster, which in turn was heavily road-worn.

And when we say “inspired”, we really mean it: the relic job is almost identical, right down to the pattern of lacquer cracks on the upper bout to the slightly lighter wood shade above the pickguard.

“If John wants to get mad, I basically just copied the Black1,” he confessed. “That’s really all I did. It’s exactly the same… if you look, it’s exactly the same. If you’re a Mayer fan, you can probably tell.”

When asked to clarify whether it was the color and the relic job that had upset PRS, Myers replied, “It was the pink. If anybody would’ve been upset about the relic it was Paul [Reed Smith], because Paul does not like relic’d guitars.”

Judging by past comments, we can’t imagine Mayer would be too fond of the relic’d Silver Sky look either. Instead, he has voiced his desire to favor Tesla- and Apple-styled design choices over Sunburst and vintage-esque alternatives.

During a conversation with Paul Reed Smith, Mayer said, “I love the surf colors. I love Sonic Blue. Surf Green. Coral Pink. Shoreline Gold. I love those. 

“What about the laptop I’m on now – Space Grey?” he continued. “I can relate to that more than I relate to something that’s sunburst. What about Tesla colors?”