Comins GCS-1 ES - string experiences and preference?

[northernbreed]

Wondering if anyone who has owned one of these had some opinions on what gauge and type of strings they thought sounded good on these. From what I can tell so far, they come with 11-49s (not sure though), and they sound pretty decent as is. Just curious what others found and settled on with these.

Thanks!

[339 in june]

I'm a happy owner of a Comins GCS-1 ES, bought it used but probably untouched. It probably had the original set of strings, that I measured at 0.010/0.046". This sounded good as it was, and it took me some time to decide to change the strings. My intention is to string the Comins with flatwounds and the Gibson ES-339 with roundwounds.
I changed the strings to flat wounds Pyramid Gold 12's and it sound really great but I think that next time I'll go back to 11's for easier play, but always FW
Don't hesitate to experiment with various string types, it's a lot of fun, easy and not that expensive
HTH

[rpjazzguitar]

I have the GCS-1, but not the ES version.

It came with an .11 E string. I don't recall the rest.

I felt that the action was too stiff for aging hands so I went lighter.

11 13 16 22 32 42 iirc. I buy a set of 9s, toss the high E and buy the G strings in packs of 5.

The guitar didn't require a truss rod adjustment. Intonates fine and sounds good. It can be heard in the Showcase section of this forum. The low E seems a little unstable when I tune it, but it doesn't bother me when I'm playing.

I considered having the stop tailpiece replaced with a trapeze to soften the feel a little, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble.

[BuddyO]

I have a GCS-1ES that I bought new about 3 years ago and have been on a string journey.

Long story short, for Jazz, I eventually settled on the Thomastik Infeld Swing JS111's, as I thought they sounded the best.
However, my recent tastes and lack of experience with Jazz chords has lead me to settle on D'Adarrio Half Round 11s (EHR370), as I have been playing more pop, rock, and blues.

The guitar originally came strung with a set of D'Addario NIckel Wound 11's (EXL115), which I left on for a few weeks, but eventually went to the EXL115W's which use a wound 3rd vs. the plain.
That required an intonation tweak on the G string, but it was a very easy change to make. I then went with Chrome 11s in order to get a smoother jazz tone and really liked them until I put on a set of the TI's, which I settled on for about 2 years as I was a beginner and was practicing open chord progressions and started learning barre chords.

But as I started to play more pop, rock, and blues, I decided to try the Half Rounds and preferred them over the flatwounds for that type of music. I'm looking to start playing more jazz as my fretting hand gets a little better at the more complex fingering and will most probably go back to the TIs for that eventually.

I should also mention that since the amp also plays such an important role in tone, I sold my Fender Blues Jr. IV in favor of a Bugera V22 and really like the sound I am now getting.

It's been a fun journey with such a fabulous guitar, but I'm also starting to realize that one guitar just can't do it all, so I'm thinking about getting an Ibanez LGB30 as a dedicated jazz box and leaving the Comins as-is for playing rock and blues. The Comins is a great guitar, but can be a little bright on the top end at times.

[BuddyO]

I was hoping this thread would generate more discussion, I know there are more Comins GCS owners here, but maybe more GCS-16 then GCS-1?:

Comins GCS Owners Club

[tomv713]

I use .11 chromes on mine

[caue amaral]

I had one and used the 011 with the first 012....I also used the Thomastik flat 011 and it was good, but I preferred the round ones because it is already a guitar with little shine. Here's a video with her...