John Mayer’s legacy with the Grateful Dead is carrying on with his brand new PRS Dead Spec Silver Sky. The Dead Spec Silver Sky is a modded version of Mayer’s signature axe with significant spec changes, and pays homage to Jerry Garcia’s iconic “Alligator” guitar tones.
The foundation of the “Dead Spec” Silver Sky is a lightweight Swamp Ash body instead of Alder, all finished in Moc Sand satin nitro that really embellishes the wood grain. The bridge is a modified PRS patented Gen III Tremolo that has been screwed to the body, a tremolo’s brass block in the body, and a brass nut and string retainer bar.
Perhaps most notably, the Dead Spec Silver Sky‘s jack plate has been swapped out for a brass-plate Alembic Blaster preamp. This preamp can be used as a straight boost but has an internal pot that allows players to add between 3-14 dB of gain to the guitar when turned on. This not only gives the Dead Spec Silver Sky added punch while maintaining crisp note separation, but it compensates for the capacitance that comes with long stage cables as well.
“After playing the Silver Sky designed for the 2023 Dead & Company summer tour, I realized the guitar was special,” said Mayer. “It quickly became apparent this wasn’t just a tool for one particular job but could be extremely versatile in other players’ hands. I’m excited to hear the music that’s made on these guitars.”
