I know what you’re thinking: 10 to 48? I thought Light strings went 10 to 46? Yeah well, let me explain…

Stringjoy does a lot of experimenting around there with different string gauges — I know, they’re nerds — and they love to run the tension math to see how certain sets perform. Through all that, they’ve discovered two inherent problems in a typical 10-46 “Light” set: there are big dips in tension on both the 2nd and 6th strings (.013 and .046, respectively). So, with their Balanced Lights, they fix all that by using a .0135 and a .048 instead.

The result is a set of strings that plays evenly across the entire fretboard and intonates better. So if you’ve been a classic 10s player, you have to give these a try. Seriously.

This is their most popular set of strings for a reason.