Ernie Ball 2226 Burly Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings - .011-.052 Reviews
Ernie Ball strings have been a top choice for players of all types since the early 1960s, when guitarists came into Ernie Ball’s music store, customizing their string gauges to make their axes easier to play. After fruitless attempts to interest major guitar manufacturers in a lighter set of strings, Ernie Ball decided to start making his own. When you open a pack of his strings today, you know you’re getting a quality set of strings designed to give you great tone, reliable performance, and long life. You can’t go wrong when you string up with Ernie Ball strings!
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Highest Rated Reviews
Surf’s Up
I use the Burly Slinkys on my Fender American Standard Strat and G&L Legacy for my surf band. Great for aggressive playing, tremolo picking, and plain strings are still bendable. Perfect blended gauge set for this.
Love these strings for lower tunings!
This set lives on my 2007 PRS Custom 22 with a fixed bridge. I keep that guitar for C Standard and Drop B maybe half a step down further depending on the vibe. As I'm getting older I find myself wanting the guitar to be easier and this definitely makes lower tunings easier; they aren't as heavy obviously like a 11-54 or a 12-56 so it does feel like a little more lose or "slinky" in the lower tuning. Over all it's a good set for me and my set up. And isnt too much of a jump from my 10-48 set on my other guitar for the higher tunings, stays in tune, they last a decently long time. Can't ask for much more.
The lovechild of Power and Skinny Top Heavy Bottom
I love strings that fight back, and playing in a hardcore punk band, I'm constantly beating the life out of my guitar. Without relatively heavy strings, all I'll get is buzzing and broken strings. Power Slinkys felt nice on the top 3 strings, but were still missing the tension I need on the bottom three for intense power chords. Skinny Top Heavy Bottoms were nice on the bottom, but given how heavy handed I am, I'd often over bend the top 3 strings on the occasional solo. With Burly Slinkys, I get the top 3 from the Power Slinkys and the bottom 3 from the Skinny Top Heavy Bottoms. The perfect marriage of the two, filling in the spots I thought each were lacking.
Strings that fight back
I bought these strings back in the summer of 2020 I think. They went on my Tele and sounded great. I hadn't played Ernie Ball strings since about 1999. I had never liked them as a string brand and the strings always rusted so fast for me.. They were just pointless for me to even buy them. I tried these because I had a normal set of 11-48 or 49 on for a while. These strings are slightly thicker and felt like they had way more tension. They really had a good tone and fought back when you went to bend. They were great and I thought I had found my new favorite strings. I will be getting a few packs of these and trade back and forth with these and a set of maybe 10-52. These are tough for a 25.5" scale.. I think they would be much easier to play on a shorter scale length. I might try them on my Les Paul sometime soon. They're not for the weak handed or beginners.. especially in Standard tuning. Maybe any other tuning would make them bend easier and still sound great. I recommend these to guys who like thick and heavy strings. Blues players.. you have your work cut out for you with this set. These lasted longer than I expected them to and I really like that because I don't change strings every few weeks.. I leave them on til they get black and almost rust out. Give these a try. They're not expensive. 5 stars for the New and improved modern strings Ernie Ball has come out with.
