JazzGtr Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I just tried a set of DÁddarion EPN 110 Pure Nickel strings with my Gibson CS356. The results were "friggin"amazing. Vintage semi-hollow tone sweetness. The Blues never sound as good as it did afterwards. Compared to the nickel wounds which were too bright with my CS356, the Pure Nickels are more melodier which allows for harder attacks and quieter responses. And when you add some gain, it just gets better. Needles to say, my CS356 just became my go to Blues guitar! Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I agree.... The vintage reissue Gibson's in 11 or 10 is pretty much all I use on semi-hollows and solid bodies... On a side note, I have never liked the sound of flatwounds on a solid or semi-hollow guitar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayville Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Great minds... that's my go-to string for my CS-356 too. Who'da thunk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PP_CS336 Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I have a Gibson CS-336 and already use D'Addario Nickel Wound strings. Maybe I have to give these Pure Nickel strings a try on it and see how they sound. You say you have a CS-356. What's that like? The CS-336 that I have is like a ES-335 semi-hollow, except with a smaller body and it's not laminated wood like the 335. The back and sides of the body are solid mahogany wood carved and forming the semi-hollow shell, and the top is solid carved maple. I looked for your model on the Gibson.com site but couldn't find it. Has it been discontinued? I feel in love with the CS-336 the first time I played it at the music store a couple of years ago. That's why I had to buy it. I'll have to see if the Pure Nickel strings make me love it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzGtr Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 You say you have a CS-356. What's that like? The CS-336 that I have is like a ES-335 semi-hollow, except with a smaller body and it's not laminated wood like the 335. The back and sides of the body are solid mahogany wood carved and forming the semi-hollow shell, and the top is solid carved maple. I looked for your model on the Gibson.com site but couldn't find it. Has it been discontinued? I feel in love with the CS-336 the What is it like to own a CS 356? Wow, the answers could be written in a separate post in itself. Hmm,,,,,,, in a word, Great! Read "11 Months with a CS 356" post. The CS 356 is just a different animal compared to the 335's. Smaller bottom, thinner neck, 57 pups and a joy to play without effort. I personally think Gibson finally got it right with the CS 356. I also own a CS 346 Paul Jackson Jr. which I use for my "Fusion" stuff. The CS 346 (My Avatar) is the upgrade version of your CS 336. Carved mahogany back and sides, arched solid triple AAA grade maple top, gold hardware, straight pull head stock and a few other upgrades. The CS 356 is alive and still selling at Willcutt Guitars, Musician Friends, Sam Ash and plently other shops. Give the Pure Nickels a try. BTW, I hate flatwounds strings too! Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzGtr Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Great minds... that's my go-to string for my CS-356 too. Who'da thunk? Clayville, Have you tried the Pure Nickels on your Tele too? If so, does the Tele sound as good as the CS 356? I'm thinking about putting a set on my Tele. Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojorule Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I use PRS 11s on my Howard Roberts Fusion. They're pure nickel. They sound fantastic. Feel good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 BTW, I hate flatwounds strings too! Jazz, Wow another Jazz guitarist that hates flatwounds... that makes 2 so far (me and you)... \:D/ Never understood the attraction... But if you must have flats... TI is the only way to go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayville Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 JazzGtr: I don't use pure nickle on my Tele because, well, it's a Tele and I want the bite and snarl from that guitar. Plus... it's a cheap tele! I keep it tuned to Open G with the 6th string off, exclusively for fooling around with Rolling Stones songs. But I expect they would sort of neuter the classic Tele/single coil sound a bit... PP_CS336: As mentioned, the CS-356 is sort of the fancy bling big brother version of the CS-336. The styling is sort of "LP Custom" to the "LP Standard" of the CS-336. Basic construction is identical between those two (336 & 356) with the following differences: the 356 has triple-ply binding, gold hardware, an ebony fretboard, big-block fretboard inlays, and a split-parallelogram headstock inlay. Almost all all have backs & sides "carved" from a solid slab of mahogany, capped with a bookmatched (usually figured) carved maple top. A few have been done with Korina backs. All other specs are the same as the 336. And... if Gibson would just put the CS-356 back, on the website (where it's been missing for four or five years now) they might sell a few more. And I could stop explaining what they are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanC Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 1333999989[/url]' post='1174374']I agree.... The vintage reissue Gibson's in 11 or 10 is pretty much all I use on semi-hollows and solid bodies... On a side note, I have never liked the sound of flatwounds on a solid or semi-hollow guitar... Hi Cajun, I sorta agree. I really like flat wounds and play them most of the time as I usually play Archtops but on my ES 330 I use round wound 12's. I will now try pure nickel 12's if I can find them. Thanks interesting comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzGtr Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 JazzGtr: I don't use pure nickle on my Tele because, well, it's a Tele and I want the bite and snarl from that guitar. Plus... it's a cheap tele! I keep it tuned to Open G with the 6th string off, exclusively for fooling around with Rolling Stones songs. But I expect they would sort of neuter the classic Tele/single coil sound a bit... [ Well, I took a chance and tried the Pure Nickel on my Tele. And, I exactly like the sound. The sound is exactly a single coil version of the CS 356 with Pure Nickel sound I like. If the Tele represented the only single coil guitar I owned, I would use Nickel Wound instead of Pure Nickel. I use Nickel Wound on my Strat for that bite you mentioned and I'll use Pure Nickel on my Tele. That way I will have an alternate single coil Blues tone available since I rarely use my Tele for any thing else. Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzGtr Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Wow another Jazz guitarist that hates flatwounds... that makes 2 so far (me and you)... \:D/ Never understood the attraction... But if you must have flats... TI is the only way to go... Cajun Blues, My bad! Actually, I'm not a member of that exclusive "Hate Flatwound club. When I said I don't like flatwounds, I meant "D'Addario's Half Rounds". Half Rounds are technically "semi-flat wounds" and I really, really hate them. But, I love, love, love D'Addario's Chromes" which are technically "flat wounds". In fact I have Chromes 12 on my L5, 11's on my PRS JA-15, and 10's on my CS346. For a period of time I exactly had Chromes (flatwounds) on all of my semi-hollow and hollow guitars and was happy being in "Deep, Dark Melod Heaven". But I later switched my PRS SC HB 1 and CS 356 back to Nickel Wound, Pure Nickel. So, you will have to represent that "Hate Flatwounds" group of one for now. Stay strong. Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigzag Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hate is such a strong word. I strongly dislike the D'Addario Chromes- they do not produce the tones that I want out of a flat wound string and they're ugly. I'm preparing to try out TI Swing flatwound 11s. The pure nickel strings sound interesting. I'd really like to try them, especially if anyone makes pure nickel 11s with a wound third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hate is such a strong word. I strongly dislike the D'Addario Chromes- they do not produce the tones that I want out of a flat wound string and they're ugly. I'm preparing to try out TI Swing flatwound 11s. The pure nickel strings sound interesting. I'd really like to try them, especially if anyone makes pure nickel 11s with a wound third. These have a wound third... http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/gil5puniwoja.html and they come in 11's TI flatwounds versus D'addario chromes... they are not even on the same planet.... TI are much better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PP_CS336 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 PP_CS336: As mentioned, the CS-356 is sort of the fancy bling big brother version of the CS-336. The styling is sort of "LP Custom" to the "LP Standard" of the CS-336. Basic construction is identical between those two (336 & 356) with the following differences: the 356 has triple-ply binding, gold hardware, an ebony fretboard, big-block fretboard inlays, and a split-parallelogram headstock inlay. Almost all all have backs & sides "carved" from a solid slab of mahogany, capped with a bookmatched (usually figured) carved maple top. A few have been done with Korina backs. All other specs are the same as the 336. And... if Gibson would just put the CS-356 back, on the website (where it's been missing for four or five years now) they might sell a few more. And I could stop explaining what they are! Clayville, Thanks for the description of CS-356. You're right about it no longer being on the Gibson website. I looked there beforehand and since I didn't see it there, that's why I asked the question. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PP_CS336 Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I just tried a set of DÁddarion EPN 110 Pure Nickel strings with my Gibson CS356. The results were "friggin"amazing. Vintage semi-hollow tone sweetness. The Blues never sound as good as it did afterwards. Compared to the nickel wounds which were too bright with my CS356, the Pure Nickels are more melodier which allows for harder attacks and quieter responses. And when you add some gain, it just gets better. Needles to say, my CS356 just became my go to Blues guitar! Jazz, JazzGtr, As I mentioned in one of my earlier replies, per your suggestion, that I was going to buy a pack of D'Addario EPN100 Pure Nickel strings for my CS-336 and try them out...well I did and you were right, "Friggin' amazing". I was a little hesitant at first because of the slight difference in gauge on the 4th through 6th strings, i.e. .025, .035, .045, as opposed to the nickel wound .026, .036, .046. But after I put them on and stretched them out to staying in tune readiness, the gauge difference didn't make a difference, but sound wise. When I first used my CS-336 for Santos and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" at my gig Saturday night, I thought I was playing B.B. King's Lucille, it sounded so sweet. And you're also right about when you adding gain, e.g. via distortion or fuzz pedal for tunes I use those effects in... Wow! A brand new experience. I like it! Thanks for the tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzGtr Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 JazzGtr, As I mentioned in one of my earlier replies, per your suggestion, that I was going to buy a pack of D'Addario EPN100 Pure Nickel strings for my CS-336 and try them out...well I did and you were right, "Friggin' amazing". I was a little hesitant at first because of the slight difference in gauge on the 4th through 6th strings, i.e. .025, .035, .045, as opposed to the nickel wound .026, .036, .046. But after I put them on and stretched them out to staying in tune readiness, the gauge difference didn't make a difference, but sound wise. When I first used my CS-336 for Santos and Johnny's "Sleepwalk" at my gig Saturday night, I thought I was playing B.B. King's Lucille, it sounded so sweet. And you're also right about when you adding gain, e.g. via distortion or fuzz pedal for tunes I use those effects in... Wow! A brand new experience. I like it! Thanks for the tip. From one guitar player to another, I got your back. Jazz, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PP_CS336 Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 From one guitar player to another, I got your back. Jazz, Thanks, Jazz! I appreciate it....Paul:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angellus Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 I just got my 335 and strung it up with DR Pure Blues, pure nickel round core stings. They were terrible I was trying to set the guitar up and got pretty frustrated. intonation was all over the place, dead strings. Just all round bad I then took them off and put my normal d'addarios steel hex core nickel wound on and the difference was night and day it may have been the round core that was the problem but my experiment with them was an epic fail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 I like pure nickel strings but they're too expensive for me. I like the sound but I feel like I can adjust my picking attack after awhile to get the sound I like anyway. If I could justify pure nickel strings, I'd use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadhog96 Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 It's funny reading all these post about pure Nickel strings as if they are the lastest and greatest thing. Pure Nickel strings have been around for years. All the oldies that you hear we're recorded with pure Nickel strings. And not all pure Nickel strings are created equal. Some have Hex core wire, some have Round core wire. The core wire used in different strings are not a standard thickness nor are they all made friom the same grade of steel. Not all steel is the same. Most strings use Swedish Steel that have a Tin plating. There are also many grades of Nickel. All these factors can greatly effect your tone, playability, and string life. The strings that use Round core are like vintage made strings. Hex core and Nickel plated Steel strings are something that came out years later. I've tried several types and they were all very different. The ones I ended up liking the best are made in a a small German factory that are called Pyramid. They are made with German Steel not Swedish with Silver plating instead of Tin. They use a small diameter core wire so string bends are easier to do. They use the highest and purist grade of Nickel for the outer wrap. They have a very nice rich warm clear tone. They are more expensive than most other brands but the trade off is that they actually last much longer than other brands so in the long run your spending less. Something to think about when considering which Pure Nickel strings to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheraton Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I just tried a set of DÁddarion EPN 110 Pure Nickel strings with my Gibson CS356. The results were "friggin"amazing. Vintage semi-hollow tone sweetness. The Blues never sound as good as it did afterwards. Compared to the nickel wounds which were too bright with my CS356, the Pure Nickels are more melodier which allows for harder attacks and quieter responses. And when you add some gain, it just gets better. Needles to say, my CS356 just became my go to Blues guitar! Jazz, They're an improvement to a 335 also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanC Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Hate is such a strong word. I strongly dislike the D'Addario Chromes- they do not produce the tones that I want out of a flat wound string and they're ugly. I'm preparing to try out TI Swing flatwound 11s. The pure nickel strings sound interesting. I'd really like to try them, especially if anyone makes pure nickel 11s with a wound third. Btw I used to use D'Addario flat wounds but switched to Thomastic Benson flat wounds. GB 112 are their code. the Bensons are good but you need to like playing flat wounds. I use round wounds on my ES 330. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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