CS336 Problem

[pneil]

Hey guys,

I have an axe that I picked up a while ago that I've trying to "fix".
It's a nice red CS336. The guitar plays great. The body is really
resonant. When played acoustically the thing rings like crazy.
Seems like it should sound great (and it does "acoustically").
Unfortunately, when it's plugged in, it sounds sort of flat. The
overtones aren't there. Nothing like the liveliness and resonance
I've gotten used to with my hollow drop-top.

Seems to me that the problem must be mechanical... a lack of
coupling between the strings and the body? I'll be installing a
tone pros bridge and tailpiece this weekend to try to address
this.

My next guess would be pickups... If I was going to try this
my choices would probably be Andersons or Lollars.

Any other (helpful) observations or insights would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Pneil

[Ray K.]

I think you are on the right trail...

First assumption is that you have a good set of fresh strings on it (?).

Otherwise, if the guitar sounds great (and feels great) while playing it acoustically, then you've got good bones. Or, tone woods in this case. So, if you like these aspects of the guitar, it is probably worth your time and effort to try and make it work for you.

You didn't mention if you had already tried this, but you might want to play around with adjusting your pickup heights and see if that gets you anywhere.

I would concentrate more in this area first before looking into the bridge/tailpiece. Well, I looked again and see you already have a TonePros set on hand. So, certainly worth a try.

But, my hunch is the pickups first and then perhaps some of the electronics (pots, caps). Though, I hope you will not have to worry with those on a semi hollow body!

Report back and let us know how things go.

Ray K.

[pneil]

Thanks Ray,

I had already worked with the pickup height and
was able to improve things a bit. I got the tonepros
bridge and tailpiece on this morning. I was a bit
surprised how sloppy the original Gibson stuff was.

I just got done playing it and its better than it
was. The sound seems a bit more focused with
a wider range of frequencies. Seems like it "fleshed
out" the original (slightly damped) tone. I'm not
sure I'm completely done yet, but it's a lot closer
to what I want than it was... Pickups would be the
next step, maybe try a set of the Duncan Seth
Lovers. There are several guys on the 335-336
forums that swear by them for hollowbodies.

It's a nice guitar.I got a good deal on it used. The
original owner had gotten it "out of wack" but it
was awesome acoustically. Figured it was worth
a shot.

I'll play it a while and see how it goes.

Thanks,

Pneil

[GuitArtMan]

The 336 is a unique instrument. I have one, though I don't play it much. Maybe I should sell it to get another Anderson... Anyway, I wasn't a fan of the '57 Classics in mine. They were harsh sounding in that guitar, at least to my ears. I have Lollar Imperials in there now, and they were a marked improvement, but still not quite what I'm looking for. I might try the Fralin pure PAFs or Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays (love the Mules in my Les Paul), but I;'m really playing s-style guitars almost exclusively these days. The 336 is super resonant, but it's voice is very different than a 335. It's much brighter, more like a resonant Les Paul than a full 335 voice. I've heard of some guys putting the Fralin split single P92s in there 336s and liking it a lot. That's another choice.

[pneil]

Thanks, those are all good thoughts. I like the idea of a p90 equivalent in the neck (although I was kind of hanging onto that thought for a Bulldog :-).

[pneil]

Just a quick update. The tonepros bridge and tailpiece
really did the job. My CS336 is (finally) more than another
pretty face :-). I had originally adjusted the pick-ups
to pump up the output a bit. With the new hardware,
the sound was too bright and a bit harsh. I thought
it sounded quite a bit better after dialing it back a bit.

Played out with it this weeked and it sounded amazing.
It's a nice alternative to my favorite axe (Tiger eye
burst hollow drop-top) and has an interesting voice.
A few of my patches that I don't use much with the
drop-top sound great with this axe.

Thanks for the insight and advice,

[Ray K.]

Glad things worked out for you, and that only a simple hardware change/pickup adjustment was all that was needed - cool!

Ray K.