Currently, I have been experimenting with a return to types / brands of light gauge strings, and been very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the Dunlop Billy Gibbons sets ( 7s and 8s) . They sound fat for the gauge , and survive bending, de-stringing, restringing and all manner of general physical abuse without complaint, where the D'addario ( my previous brand of choice ) - would have snapped at the ball end in no time. This may be the general quality of Dunlop strings merely repackaged in appealing gauges, but I have no prior knowledge of standard Dunlop strings.
My main 'project' is chord melody - for which I swear by Thomastik Jazz Swing flatwounds ( for tactile quality , tone and intelligent tapering of the bass string tensions, without losing any sonic balance ). However, I wanted to revise some previous playing styles - and having a somewhat light touch, thought it might be fun to also revise on some of those 1970s type strings.
Where I wanted 9s, I tried the Fender 150 ( pure Nickel wound ) 9 - 40 ; largely due to the 9-11-15-24-32-40 combination . Again, I was very happy with what I found.
The interesting thing being ( for me ) that it was all the time I had spent playing Thomastik 12- 50 , that made me want the sort of perceived tension / taper - in a much lighter set , I.e that now, 8-10-12 seemed much better than 8-11-14 ; and 9-11-15 felt much better than 9-11-16 e.t.c.
I had recently been flirting with George L's 9s on My Baja Telecaster due to the 9-12-15 top ( somewhat redolent of the original 10-13-15 top of a 70s Telecaster set) - and I liked the sound ; but concluded that I actually like a rollerwound / slightly tenser set of bass strings, so I can use lighter gauges, without obvious fret rattle . Fender did the roller wound and fetish gauges, so they eventually won the battle of the 9 gauge. The Dunlop Billy Gibbons also managed a nice combination of easily playable - yet not too slack , but how they manage this, is less obvious ; I can only guess it was a combination of alloy used - combined with slightly rollered bass strings.
I had also tried the excellent 'Newtone' strings for Jazz, but in the final analysis , prefered the Thomastik feel / gauge choices for both flat and roundwound Jazz strings.
I have fond memories of GHS Burnished Nickel for the warm but tighter feeling sets , but as previously mentioned - Dunlop and Fender won on being able to provide specifically gauged sets.
When last gigging ( a long time ago now ) - I used Ernie Ball, but now wanted something with a "A bit more snap in the Celery" . :)
