Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky Electric Guitar Strings 3-Pack - 9-46 Gauge (P03222)
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2020', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Play Video\n On my Squier Standard Strat'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Good set of strings for a great price. Compared to other strings from D\'addario, Gibson, and Elixer, these strings are a much better value since they are so cheap. However, in all the years that I have been playing, I have not once said, "man this guitar is great, what kind of strings are these?" Great guitars play and sound great, period, given of course that you are using at least decent strings. I know that every guitarist has their go-to strings, as do I (and the brands and styles vary across each of my guitars), but honestly strings are strings. These days, so much attention is paid to the manufacturing of these strings, that the quality and consistency is great across a number of different brands. Generally, I can\'t tell much of a difference in tone, playability, or "slinky-ness" across brands. (I can hear the groans now) Hear me out though, if I want to change the tone, I will get a different string gauge, and this is the same for slinkyness. In the end, given 5 sets of top notch strings, I will pick the fresh set vs. a worn set 10 times out of 10.\n\nPros:\nVery cheap for 3 sets of strings, that means you can change more often, which in turn means that these strings will feel and sound better longer\n\nI feel like they definitely last longer than say Gibson vintage strings, but most coated, modern strings will be comparable.\n\nCons:\nNone\n\nConclusion:\nStrings are strings, and given a good set of strings, I would only base this recommendation on price and great value (5 stars for that). If you are just starting out, I recommend you try a number of different strings to find your preference, but usually in a pinch whatever my local shop has on hand has worked just fine.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2020', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I started playing the guitar 3 months ago. I bought one that’s suitable for beginners at my local music shop and have been using that ever since. I try to practice whenever I can, usually in the evenings after the kids have had dinner. It can be distracting if they’re being hyper (my 4 & 6 year olds never seem to run out of energy), but it’s the only time I can really play. My fingers would hurt but I thought it was just a matter of having to get used to it. Well that problem never went away so I did some research and found out that it might be due to my strings.\n\nI asked my guitar instructor for some recommendations and he told me to get these strings. He also told me about  these earplugs  which help filter out background noise so I can focus - they actually do seem to help. Anyways I tried to get these strings locally but they didn’t have it at the store that I usually go to so I bought it online from amazon. I don’t have prime membership so it took a few days to get here but I was okay with that since I managed to get it while it was on sale. One pack comes with three sets and I got it for under $15 so I feel like I got a pretty good deal.\n\nI’ve never bought any type of guitar string before aside from the ones that came with my instrument so I can’t compare them that well with others but from what I can tell the quality is great. I also noticed on the packaging that it’s made in the USA so that’s always a good sign. It took me a little while to switch the strings but that’s just me being an amateur and has nothing to do with the actual product.\n\nOnce I put them on, they had a nice balanced sound. There’s a noticeable difference on how they feel compared to the old ones I had. It makes such a big difference when I’m practicing…my fingers don’t hurt nearly as bad. People say that they also produce a better tone and I believe it.\n\nThe only thing I didn’t like about it was the packaging. The neon yellow color is nice but each set comes in a plastic bag that you have to tear apart. It’s not a zip lock design or anything so you’re kind of forced to use all of the strings at once once you’ve opened them. This wasn’t a problem for me since I was replacing all of mine anyway but I can see how it can be annoying for someone who only wants to replace one. You’d need to find a secure place to put it or something.\n\nOverall however I am still happy with my purchase. I was worried that guitar strings would be expensive but fortunately that wasn’t the case and they’re actually pretty affordable. I don’t know how long these ones will last me but if everything is good I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another pack when I have to. Would I recommend them? Yes…but I’m not sure I’m in a position to actually recommend anything yet. There are probably a lot more people out there who know more about these products than me. From my experience so far however, they work great.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "I don't even know if I need to review these, these are the gold standard for guitar strings as far as I'm concerned. I've been using them for 25 years. Every now and then I stray and try a d'addario or GHS or some such, but I always come back to these. Nice balanced sound. Not too punchy, not too muddy. Great feel. Not too grippy, not too slippery. Ernie Ball needs to make a package that offers bonus (high) E-G strings though, I go through those well before the low strings are needing to be changed."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-4 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I started learning how to play the guitar about 1 month ago. I was started off playing with the standard string that I got with my guitar. Even though I practice frequently, my fingers still hurt. I decided to do some research on how to fix my problem and one of the solutions was to get a different set of strings. The super slinky seemed to be the best for me so I bought it. After setting up the strings and doing a practice session, I can honestly say that it made a difference. The strings were a bit easier to play with and my fingers did not hurt as much. It is not a magic set of strings that will take away the finger pains for a beginner but it will definitely help, especially if you are buying it for a child.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2020', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'This is not a review of Ernie Ball strings but is a review of their customer service. Let’s face it, there are plenty of high-quality string manufacturers out there.\n\nI’ve been purchasing and going through lots (for me) of sets of strings over the past year and a half due to gigging more last year and now lots of guitar work/modifications/practice during the pandemic. I’ve been primarily using Ernie Ball strings for many years and haven’t had any consistent sorts of problems.\n\nDuring the past few months though, for at least a half dozen times now I’ve had the high E string unwind at the ball end. This has happened on at least 3 different guitars so I decided to contact Ernie Ball’s support since this was unusual in my experience. I’m glad I did.\n\nI think I sent my email on a Sunday afternoon/evening. I received a response by 9am the next morning - shocking! And it wasn’t an automated response: I received a concerned sounding email. I had mentioned that I was losing confidence in the strings since this was starting to happen so frequently - they clearly understood and were (or at least seemed) concerned.\n\nThey asked for lots of information - I sent as much as I could - and they sent me a number of replacement packs along with a couple of sets of their reinforced strings (their RPS series). Every time I emailed them, I received a response so quickly it seemed obvious that they truly cared.\n\nGiven how inexpensive Ernie Ball strings are nowadays I wasn’t expecting much of a response. However, they treated me as though I was paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for a set. This was literally one of the best customer service experiences I’ve ever had (and that’s including customer service from companies like Disney and Apple).\n\nI can’t imagine wanting to use any other brand of strings after this experience. And for what it’s worth, I’d been buying the multipacks of strings. The last was a 9-pack set here on Amazon. As I had packs of strings all over the place, I was unable to account for which packs were the problem but I’m beginning to think it was with the string sets in that 9-pack. I am NOT trying to imply there’s a manufacturing problem.\n\nThank you Ernie Ball!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "I've been using D'Addario for decades. And still use them. But I wanted to try these Slinky Strings. Found out that I liked them so much, I added them to my Subscribe and Save monthly deliveries. I like the Regulars, or size 10 best on my Strat and Les Paul. I have a lot of guitars so I change strings pretty often. I do use Dave Gilmour's GHS, and Fender Bullets too. But these are great strings and fast becoming my favorites, with the D'Addario coming in a very close 2nd. Depending on which guitar they are on. If you haven't tried this brand of string yet, I would definitely recommend giving them a try. They have a great sound and bend easy. And the price is real hard to beat for this quality of string."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2019', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I’ve been playing bass for decades and recently I decided to buy my first electric guitar. I’m sure it sat out on the showroom floor for awhile and many grubby hands probably touched it, so I wanted to swap out strings so I can establish some sort of frame of reference (I had no idea what my guitar was originally strung with). This being my first guitar I didn’t know what the cost of good guitar strings was, so I basically just searched on Amazon for guitar strings and picked the first thing I saw which had tons of reviews and was highly rated (these strings).\n\nIf I’m being totally honest, I didn’t read into the details (or heck, even past the title obviously) because I ordered two sets and figured I was just going to get two sets of strings. I’m used to paying a lot more for bass strings, so $12.99 seemed reasonable enough. I bought two sets because I wanted some backups. To my surprise, when I opened the package I was greeted with SIX sets of strings (since each package is a three-pack). I thought I received the wrong item so I looked at my order history and sure enough, I ordered two three-packs. Now I have way more than enough strings which is a good problem to have but I can’t believe each set of strings is just a hair over $4.00/set. What a deal!\n\nThese are my first strings so I can’t give you the pros/cons in how they compare to others but they sure sound great to me!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "I have been playing for a long time. I started out with EB slinkys. Used them for years. Got to gigging a lot, and for some reason (probably the place I was buying EB strings was out of stock,) I tried GHS and used them for a long time (great strings btw.) Fast forward to now, I have drifted back to Slinkys. The Hybrid Slinky to be exact. The Hybrid Nickel Wound line has a fat top/normal bottom arrangement, .009-.046. Which gives me, pretty much, the same lead capabilities I had before, but with an increased, heavier, response in chording. I have come to absolutely love these strings. Especially on my Strat. I got to liking them so much they are now strung across my 6 guitars, and a few other friends guitars that have come through here... I take in stray guitars, and give them decent setups and strings occaisionally :)\n\nThe bottom line is you can't go wrong with Slinkys, no matter the string set guage. They are a proven, time tested, string of high quality and durability. The Hybrids just up the game tonally. Chords have more strength and definition, more gonads! I could recommend them for days, but until you try them you won't know why these are now my go to strings.\n\nI play old school classic rock and they are fantastic. With the increased chord definition, I'd bet a metal guy might like them too.\n\nJust FYI, I'm not real sure, but I think Amazon lumps these EB string reviews together, so it's a good idea to be specific/or look for the specific strings you are reviewing. People need that info to base a decision on. I've seen the same issue with other products. Otherwise...\n\nRock on!"}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "A gauge set for when you like to noodle but tone is also kind of a big deal... Been playing for 20 years. Every time I try new strings, I always come back to the EB's. They last a good while if you case your guitar. They don't seem to go dead or break as often as other brands. I'd heard some years back of a theory that you should play the thickest gauge you can that doesn't kill your fingers. Thicker strings = better tone. I only tune down a half-step, so this set is just right for me. Love 'em. Probably won't ever play anything else."}]