I've been a fan of Ernie Ball Super Slinkys on my Strats for awhile and when the new Cobalts came out I was anxious to try them. Well my local store called me yesterday to let me know they had set aside a couple of sets for me to try. I picked them up today and proceeded to string one Strat up today. Here are my initial impressions.

Pros- They do seem to sustain longer. They should be called super slippery. They bend even easier than the nickel strings which is good and bad. Tonewise they seem to be darker and fuller sounding on the bottom end than the nickel string. On the clean channel thru a Fender Twin they still have the brightness and twang on the higher notes but the fullness of the lower notes made me look down to make sure I was playing single coils. Toss in some overdrive, reverb, and some compression and chords just jumped out of the speakers. They didn't bloom, they weren't thin or jangly; they were immediatly present and they hung around if you let them.

Cons- If rubber bands were made of metal these would be a good candidate. They stretch, and stretch......., and stretch some more. I can normally seat my strings tune em up, stretch them out and tune em up and they're ready to go. With the Cobalts I had to repeat the process 4 times before I could get them to stay in tune without going flat. Cobalts are not as pretty as nickel. They are a dull grey so no real visual appeal but who cares. They're double the price of a regular set of strings.

Are they worth it? Depends on how long they last. Do I like them yes. Will you like them? Dunno...Will I restring all my guitars with them? Not yet... but I am going to throw a set on one of my humbucker equipped guitars for grits and giggles. I'll let you know how that turns out later.

Thanks for posting the review. I am perfectly happy with regular slinkys and after reading your post, I see no reason to pay twice as much for something I may not like. Think I'll hold off trying them for now and buy two sets of regulars instead!