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Guitarist builds the “John Delonge” – a combination of John Mayer and Tom DeLonge’s guitars
The John DeLonge combines elements of the PRS Silver Sky and a Fender Stratocaster.
Image: Jannick Köhler
A pop-punk guitarist has built a guitar he calls the “John DeLonge”, which combines elements of John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky, with Tom DeLonge’s Fender Strat.
The custom model was built by Jannik Köhler of German pop-punk band The Journey Back. He combined two signature guitars by modding John Mayer’s PRS SE Silver Sky with the circuitry of the Fender Tom DeLonge signature Stratocaster to bring the creation to life.
According to Guitar World, Köhler is a longtime fan of the original Fender Artist Series Tom DeLonge Strat, and has owned a Graffiti Yellow model since 2015.
“When they first announced the Silver Sky I said to myself: if there will ever be an SE version, I’ll combine the Tom DeLonge Strat and Silver Sky,” he explained to Guitar World. “After they finally announced it, I just went for it. Now that I see how many people liked it, it seems that it was a great idea!”
He described the build as “pretty simple”, stating, “I ordered a few custom Silver Sky pickguards with only one pickup and volume route through a German custom seller, but ended up using the pearl one to stick with the original TD look.”
He shared that the most difficult part of the build was routing the body to fit a humbucker in the bridge position, and that his only detour from the original circuit was a push-pull volume control, enabling him to split the coils of the Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker.
Overall, Köhler said the project cost him an estimate of €900, with the pre-owned SE Silver Sky having accounted for €650 of the total.
Mayer is currently out on a colossal tour, meanwhile Tom DeLonge has rejoined Blink-182 with a new album set for release sometime this year.