Ernie ball make great strings. Whatever guitar you play or style of music you're into there's a set of strings for you. The wrap wire on the Paradigm wound strings is plasma-enhanced for corrosion resistance and Everlast treated for unparalleled repellency of oils, sweat and gunk & debris build-up. Experience the first set of longer lasting strings that are worth playing with all benefits and no compromises. Other popular brands include D’Addario, Elixir, Rotosound, Fender, Dunlop and relative newcomers Curt Mangan. Each company has a different take on string gauge combinations. It’s down to you to test them out and work out your favourites. After all, string gauge is 90% preference. The Best String Gauge For You As you can see there’s a significant difference between the tension in the sets so you can start to get an idea of the level of extra strain placed on the guitar. The strings on your guitar have a major impact on its sound and playability. The wrong gauge makes playing harder, the guitar feel wrong and can seriously reduce your enjoyment.

Beefy Slinky Coated Titanium RPS Electric Guitar Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky Coated Titanium RPS Electric Guitar

Ernie Ball’s Paradigm strings are the most break resistant strings on the planet - they’ll even guarantee it! Providing an industry leading level of strength and longer life, Paradigm strings demonstrate an unprecedented advance in string technology while still retaining 100% of the Slinky tone and feel that the top players of the last 40 years and come to love and demand. Below we’ve compiled a list of some of the effects that may occur. We say “may” occur as not all guitars are the same. For instance, some older guitars are more delicate so could have a bigger reaction to even a small change in gauge whilst other guitars made from harder woods may show no signs of movement at all.For some years now, some string manufacturers have been manufacturing what are known as half gauged strings. These are sets where the manufacturer has carefully chosen ‘in-between’ gauges to help make the step up in gauge less of a drastic one both for the player and their guitar, with little to no adjustments necessary. Guitar strings determine more in your music and how you approach the instrument than you might think. Different gauges provide a variety of sounds and affect both fretting and strumming hands. Let’s compare two sets of strings:

Ernie Ball Guitar Strings EB Beefy Slinky 11 - 54 2627 Ernie Ball Guitar Strings EB Beefy Slinky 11 - 54 2627

Choosing a set of guitar strings is simple when you know what you’re looking for, and you probably won’t change much once you’ve settled on the right ones. Until then, all the various combinations of string gauges and brands can be a headache – but we can cure it! Here’s everything you need to know in a nutshell: Heavier gauge strings naturally have more tension in them when they are tuned to pitch. This means greater effort is required to play them in the form of fretting and bending, but it’s not just the player that feels the extra strain, the guitar is affected by the heavier gauge too. Many great guitarists have been known to prefer light gauge strings such as Jimi Hendrix, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, and B.B. King. We hope this has given you a better understanding of how your guitar can react to a change in string gauge. It’s often difficult to give a definitive answer and say “this will definitely happen” but it’s not as easy as that as all instruments are different and the jump in gauge will be different from player to player.

For example, if you’re changing strings from 9-42 to 10-46 gauge, it may not sound like a big deal, but the heavier 10-46 strings set carries over 20% more tension across the entire set. That’s a huge jump in tension! Your guitar will inevitably react to this extra tension and as a result you may notice changes in its playability. The important thing to bear in mind is that it’s not until you put the new strings on that you will get to see just how much or how little adjustment the guitar needs as a result of the extra tension. With this in mind, this blog is simply meant as a primer on what you “might” see or “feel” happen. Also it’s worth pointing out that it’s not meant as an exhaustive guide on DIY repair so if you don’t feel comfortable carrying out any changes to your guitar yourself, we’d always recommend seeking the help of a qualified guitar technician or luthier... some shoddy work can often prove costly to repair afterwards. The first set is thinner across every string than the first. That means, in general, they’ll be “easier” to play for many beginner guitarists, because they require less finger strength to fret and bend. On the other hand, they do require more precision to really add flavour to your playing and master techniques like a delicate vibrato, legato or arpeggios. The second option is to take your current set of strings and to tweak some of the gauges here and there to your taste. You can do this on an adhoc basis by purchasing some additional single string(s) and changing whichever gauge you want to.