I recently ordered a leather guitar strap for my Epiphone Sheraton II Pro, and it turned out that by spending just a few dollars more, I could get free shipping (which was considerably more than those few dollars). So, I added a set of Ernie Ball Hyper Slinky strings to the mix, even though I didn’t foresee a need for them. Many people seem to swear by them: I’m told they’re the most popular brand in my neck of the woods by far,but whether that means they’re great quality or that the average person is maybe just trying to save money is an open question.
The other day, I was looking at my Fender Stratocaster which I’d not used lately and decided that it should be restrung. I typically use Fender Super Bullets, light gauge (which I order in bulk from here),[1]Restringing was definitely overdue, as you can tell from my annotation on the package! but when I saw that the Ernie Balls were similar in gauge, I thought, why not try those out?
Installed them and took it for a test drive, meaning, I tried to learn the opening sequence of Purple Haze, which I have in my Rocksmith library. First impressions were good, but it will take a little time to form a more informed opinion.
Here are the technical details for comparison:
| Name | Super Bullets | Hyper Slinky |
| Brand | Fender | Ernie Ball |
| Style | nickel wound | nickel wound |
| 1st string | .009 | .008 |
| 2nd string | .011 | .011 |
| 3rd string | .016 | .014 |
| 4th string | .024w | .024w |
| 5th string | .032 | .032 |
| 6th string | .042 | .042 |
Notes
| ↑1 | Restringing was definitely overdue, as you can tell from my annotation on the package! |
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