Dunlop DHCN1150 Heavier Core 11-50 Electric Guitar Strings

I was just going for whatever the least expensive strings I could find, and these turned out to be really quite good! I usually use D'Addarios and occasionally Ernie Balls, but these have been a very pleasant surprise.

Just like their other brethren in Jim Dunlop's family of nickel-plated steel strings, this set provides a thrilling balance of brilliance and warmth across your guitar's pickups while feeling eminently comfortable to the fingers of your fretting hand. They have a slinkiness not attained with Ernie Ball Extra Slinky strings (which are also top-notch contenders in the teeny strings with big sound arena) and barely surpassed by Reverend Willy's Mexican Lottery Brand extra-light strings. With these strings and just the bridge pickup of an Epiphone LP-100 and an amPlug "Metal" headphone amp, all sorts of classic rock and classic metal guitar tones were closely approximated (talent and anything pleasant sounding with those tones were not - you'd need a guitarist for that). Noticed some things with these strings as I had switched back to the teeny tiny wires from the likes of Dunlop Heavy Core "Heaviest," GHS GB-LOW Boomers, and Fender 250JM strings: *On the higher frets of the guitar, tiny strings increase the amount of available space for playing compared to regular strings. *A much lighter touch or a fairly lighter touch and higher action are needed to play these strings without them buzzing out on the frets. Coming to these straight from GHS GB-LOW Boomers with both in E standard tuning included a bit of a learning curve. At the same time, articulating more than 5th root "power" chords is so much easier, so the pick hand needed taming while the fret hand received some liberation. *There's less output and sustain with tiny strings compared to regular strings and that difference comes through the amp. Compared to Dunlop DEN0838, Fender 250JM strings on the same guitar with the same tuning sound much "hotter," brighter, and louder at the same setting - like getting a pickup upgrade for $3.99 and some tendon-wear. After having seen how many people yap about sustain while simultaneously putting a hair scrunchy on their guitar to cut down on superfluous string noise, I think the slight loss in sustain is overrated. As for the loss of volume, I found there is at least one potentiometer on the amp that can be used to readjust the volume and it works well. All-in-all, if you like the heavy tones of classic metal and classic rock guitar without leaving the comfort zone of E standard tuning or Eb standard tuning, like practicing chords only you, Allan Holdsworth, and Stanley Jordan can name out loud (you, the reader - not me), or enjoy bending every note from its root to its augmented 5th without bleeding, these are great strings. If you enjoy luscious feeling strings with a bit of warmth to offset their brightness and produce pinch harmonics like they're trying to earn a medal, these and any other Jim Dunlop nickel-plated steel string set are the fun way to do it. I like the Rev Willy Extra-Light strings a touch better, but when these are a lower price (fluctuates daily), they're the better buy.

I don’t haven’t had any of the issues that other reviewers have encountered. These string (11-50 heavy core) are awesome. I use them on 2 les pauls that I set up for D standard/drop C. Obviously personal preference is a factor, but using these for any tuning higher than that would make the strings either tight AF, and/or force overly high action. It should be noted that I was buying these locally until they stopped carrying them, But I’ve bought 3 sets on here and no problems. I had similar issues with ghs boomers that I got from here. Showed up with a nice kink in the middle of every string, so I don’t doubt the other reviews, just sharing my experience thus far.

The strings arrived in a nice package with clear information about the product. Some information about string tension would have been appreciated but it's not the end of the world. Unfortunately, the high-E (090) after a few hours of use, had a problem. The "knot" at the ball's end of the string got undone. I tried to fix the "knot" but the string broke. Sign of bad quality control. Never had this type of problem with other brands. Sound-wise, they are good strings. Not exceptionally good but at the same level of other brands.

👍Great