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Pure nickel strings for ever


Bernie69

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Hi guys,

 

Happy owner of a 359 , and always in search of the best possible sound,

 

I have tried several kinds of strings.

 

The guitar was delivered with a set of Gibson Brite wire 10/46 that I found too bright, I replaced them by Gibson Pure Nickel vintage

 

10/46 and I was very happy with them, and being later involved in some Jazz, I replaced them by a set of flat strings,it was a big

 

mistake: a dull sound, boomy basses, all the thrill disappeared [sad] ,so I came back to the pure nickel and the result is once again

 

amazing [love] I have retrieved a warm, unique sound with bite,harmonics,"bell like" feeling; in short, life was given again to my

 

instrument.

 

ES semis owners have you had the same experience ?, what are your favourite strings ????

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I too just got a 359... this is my first semi-hollow and I feel like a whole new world was opened up to me. The sound is just so... well... indescribable. I use 9-42 britewires as I like the extra brightness. I have a custom and it has a very warm sound to it so it gives me good reason to switch back and forth. What amp do you play through? I have an orange th30 and that is one awesome pairing.

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I love Pure Nickel strings so much that the following guitars are strung with them: Gibson: CS 356, CS46,Custom Les Paul, PRS Private Stock Santana II, Fender Strat and Tele. My Gibson L5 and PRS JA-15 have D'addario Chromes flat wounds for that deep mellow tone. Once I tried Pure Nickels there was no turning back to regular strings again. I've been using them for about 7 years now. But beware, not all Pure Nickels are the same construction, feel, tone. I've tried most of them and returned back to D'addario and GHS (9.5, 10 and 10.5 gauges).

 

By using Pure Nickel strings, I re-discovered using my tone/treble inputs more instead of rolling off most for leads and crunches when using my Strat, Tele. Additionally, it also opens a whole new world of different types of amps/speakers combinations.

 

Jazz,

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I too just got a 359... this is my first semi-hollow and I feel like a whole new world was opened up to me. The sound is just so... well... indescribable. I use 9-42 britewires as I like the extra brightness. I have a custom and it has a very warm sound to it so it gives me good reason to switch back and forth. What amp do you play through? I have an orange th30 and that is one awesome pairing.

 

First, congratulations [thumbup] , do not hesitate to send pictures ! Opening the box with a GIBSON inside is an historical moment !!

 

what is the colour of yours ? mine is plain sunburst, absolutly perfect, but it does not bear the Custom logo on the

back of the neck, I only have the little booklet but it does not mean a lot.Do you have the Richlite fingerboard ?

I do not kwow why there has been such a fuss about Gibson use of ebony, because many new Japanese guitars sport ebony ( Yamaha ....)

I miss ebony on my 359, with time it becomes aged and it's beautiful ( see the old violins )

I have currently two amps, a cheap solid state LANEY LV100, 60W with a 12" speaker, I'm very happy with it, enough power for

band practice and small places like restaurants or bars.

The other one is a VOX AC4TV 4 W, a little valve amp for home.

I must definitly try this Orange amp one day.

About the strings, one thing I have not said is the "vintage sound" of the Gib Pure Nickel, it's not only written on the box to boost the sales, you really hear this blues moaning, specially on the bends.

 

 

Enjoy your gear

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I too just got a 359... this is my first semi-hollow and I feel like a whole new world was opened up to me. The sound is just so... well... indescribable. I use 9-42 britewires as I like the extra brightness. I have a custom and it has a very warm sound to it so it gives me good reason to switch back and forth. What amp do you play through? I have an orange th30 and that is one awesome pairing.

When it's about roundwounds, I'm a fan of the brightest sounding strings available. They get most out of any guitar.

 

Flatwounds are a different story. They are the choice if sound colours shall match tuning pitches and the decay of the bass strings shall be close to that of the treble strings. There also will be next to no leap in tone between wounds and plains. As a result chords appear rather consistent, and runs will sound very fluid through that.

 

Furthermore, flatwounds allow for significantly faster action, E6th about the same as E1st, and cause much less fingering noise.

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First, congratulations [thumbup] , do not hesitate to send pictures ! Opening the box with a GIBSON inside is an historical moment !!

 

what is the colour of yours ? mine is plain sunburst, absolutly perfect, but it does not bear the Custom logo on the

back of the neck, I only have the little booklet but it does not mean a lot.Do you have the Richlite fingerboard ?

I do not kwow why there has been such a fuss about Gibson use of ebony, because many new Japanese guitars sport ebony ( Yamaha ....)

I miss ebony on my 359, with time it becomes aged and it's beautiful ( see the old violins )

I have currently two amps, a cheap solid state LANEY LV100, 60W with a 12" speaker, I'm very happy with it, enough power for

band practice and small places like restaurants or bars.

The other one is a VOX AC4TV 4 W, a little valve amp for home.

I must definitly try this Orange amp one day.

About the strings, one thing I have not said is the "vintage sound" of the Gib Pure Nickel, it's not only written on the box to boost the sales, you really hear this blues moaning, specially on the bends.

 

 

Enjoy your gear

 

Thanks!! Mine is the tobacco burst as well and I love it. I had a chance at a pelham blue 359 which would have been really sweet as well but I just feel like a guitar like this needs a the tobacco burst. I love the natural finish of the neck and how it contrasts the rest. Plus the subtle figuring on the top and back are perfect. I have never liked highly figured grains.

 

I have richlite on mine and it doesn't have the cs badge either. I used to really get worked up about richlite but I forget that I have richlite until someone asks. I love the tone and playability of the guitar so I get over the richlite very easily. I have a custom LP with real ebony and my fingers can't tell the difference so I just don't worry about it.

 

I had very limited experience with Orange until recently and I quickly became hooked. I just love how sweet it sounds. The TH30 has a more modern gain structure which works great for me, I also play lead in a metal band but I had a tiny terror and I LOVED it... It was really hard to sell it but it didn't make sense to keep both that and my th30.

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I've been using DR Pure Blues 10-46 nickel strings on my CS-356 for years now. Nickel wrap around round cores. They last a good long while and give me a warm, rich tone and some top-end clarity that suits this guitar very well.

 

I still use D'Addario XL10s on my Tele, though. Their brighter tone suits that guitar (and why I reach for it).

 

Strings are the cheapest and easiest way to experiment with changing (no pun intended) or improving your tone.

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Hi Bernie69, That's good to hear, I've ordered a pack of the Gibson Pure Nickel Vintage 9/42 set. I've been using Ernie Ball Super Slinkys 9/42 set. Heard good thing about the Gibson set so I'm giving them a try. :)

I'll 2nd this [thumbup]

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First, congratulations [thumbup] , do not hesitate to send pictures ! Opening the box with a GIBSON inside is an historical moment !!

 

what is the colour of yours ? mine is plain sunburst, absolutly perfect, but it does not bear the Custom logo on the

back of the neck, I only have the little booklet but it does not mean a lot.Do you have the Richlite fingerboard ?

I do not kwow why there has been such a fuss about Gibson use of ebony, because many new Japanese guitars sport ebony ( Yamaha ....)

I miss ebony on my 359, with time it becomes aged and it's beautiful ( see the old violins )

I have currently two amps, a cheap solid state LANEY LV100, 60W with a 12" speaker, I'm very happy with it, enough power for

band practice and small places like restaurants or bars.

The other one is a VOX AC4TV 4 W, a little valve amp for home.

I must definitly try this Orange amp one day.

About the strings, one thing I have not said is the "vintage sound" of the Gib Pure Nickel, it's not only written on the box to boost the sales, you really hear this blues moaning, specially on the bends.

 

 

Enjoy your gear

 

Here are some photos of mine with my other guitars.

 

IMG_1904_zpsys5umjyr.jpg

 

IMG_1912_zpsffgo9bkb.jpg

 

IMG_1909_zpsegkbe7dx.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I use Gibson Vintage nickel on my 339 and Les Paul and don't have the need to look at others now. I have tried others but always come back to the Gibson vintage. When I do go to flat wounds, I use Thomastik-Infeld Electric Guitar Steel/nickel Flat Wound 11's. It is an expensive set but they seem to last a long time. I had used D'Addario Flat wounds. Then I tried all the flat wounds by other companies. The Thomastik sounds right for my 339 otherwise it is the Gibson Vintage Nickels.

 

thomastik-infeld-electric-guitar-steel-nickel-flat-wound-light-011-047-js111-10.gif

 

 

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I put the Gibson Vintage Reissue 09/42 on my Gibson SG a couple of weeks ago. Normally I hate the feel of new strings, but the Gibson strings felt good straight away, very happy with the tone and quality of the strings and they haven't gone dull sounding. I'm that impressed I ordered several sets and these are now my go to brand. :)

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Luv the colours of your Les Pauls. The light blue Custom is particularly unique. Luv it

I've been using GHS Burnished Nickel 10-46 for about 5 years now - before that the GHS Nickel Rockers. I put them on everything - the 335, 336, R9 and my new '15 SG Special. I play through f-voiced Carr amps, the Rambler and a Slant 6V. I've tried some of the more "exotic" pure nickels, and they are ok but I've not found that they were "that" much better than the GHS pure Nickel. They stretch in quickly and hold tune very well, sound nice and warm but will bring the bite w/a little OD. They truly go from clean to mean effortlessly. If you blind test them you'll be hard pressed to go with the higher priced brands - at least I was. Good Hunting.

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