ZENO SKY – (Family: Aquila Sky Guitar)
General Description:
The “ZENO SKY” bears the name of Uli’s brother ZENO, the great song-writer and guitar player. The first prototype was coincidentally finished in the same week that ZENO passed away, in February 2018. Uli is convinced that this Sky Guitar would have been perfect for Zeno and he would have loved it.
The ZENO SKY is the first in the line of the SILVER SERIES SKY GUITARS, and it is also the most affordable choice of all available Sky Guitars.
Despite its entry level budget price the ZENO SKY is a fully fledged genuine Sky Guitar in most of the important aspects and will play just as well. However, because it runs on battery, it does not offer the same unlimited power of gain, which the Mega-Wing III System provides and the EQ is not as extensive, albeit still extremely effective. The hardware is kept as a “silver theme”, instead of the “gold theme” which is used as standard for most other SGs. Quite a few people actually prefer the silver look, which is very striking in its own right.
While most UJR Sky Guitars are mainly master built by hand, the Silver Series is manufactured according to a custom shop approach, where certain actions are performed using CNC machines. Due to this these guitars can be more affordable. By far most guitars on the market today are predominantly machine manufactured in a largely automated process, but Sky Guitars are mainly hand-crafted, this also goes for the Silver Series, where most steps are still done by hand.
Guitars of the SILVER Series are fully-fledged Sky Guitars in their own right and play just as well, but they offer less frills than those of the more expensive series.
Wood & Specs:
- Number of strings: 6
- Alder body
- Maple neck
- Position markers: black dots
- Long scale (Strat style – 25.5 inches – 65 cm)
- Neck width at saddle: 4.5 cm
- Neck width towards bridge: 5.9 cm
- Neck join: MW
- Not scalloped, except for the highest frets
- Number of frets: 37 (the top 5 frets are whole-tone steps, counting as 2 frets each – the amount differs between individual guitars)
- Super-Jumbo fret wire – smaller in the higher regions
- ABM super smooth floating tremolo with 3 springsSound & Tone Engine:
- passive pick up system
- 2 pick-ups: 2 humbuckers, switchable to single coil
- 3 control knobs:
1) volume – 2) treble-range – 3) Mid-range
- 5-way toggle switch
- 1 X humbucker-to-single coil switch
- Finish & Colour:
- Overall appearance: silver theme
- Polyurethane
- Body: raven black or alpine white
Decoration &Symbols:
- 2 nickel scratch plates
- Sky Academy spiral symbol on body
- USG symbol on headstock
- Unique USG identification back plate
- Black UJR Sky Guitar case with black velvet interior
Tone: - Bright, singing
- Sky Guitar Type: Aquila
Silver/nickel scratch plates and “Ruby Magic” positioning lights