I'm interested inasmuch as it's the 'core function' (no pun intended) of the instrument.
Technical specs and differences obviously contribute to the look, feel and sound but there are literal and figurative fine degrees of difference so it's complex stuff without necessarily being difficult to understand (compared to, say, electrical engineering for the layman).
It's difficult to omit one's personal experiences from these threads so I won't try...
Once upon a time a musical rival of sorts told me he used GHS Boomers - although at that time there were precious few varieties available. Dean Markley was the only alternative at my store. I used Boomers for quite a long time but couldn't even tell you what gauge they were. Young, dumb and full of *** as it were. I began using Markleys, probably because they did have color-coded packaging for the gauges (yellow for me thanks) and because you got a neat little sticker - the kind affixed to a million guitar cases, amps, rolling cases, walls, etc.
I confess to being intrigued by the Slinky designation on Ernie Ball strings. Slinky is good, right? Slinky is sexy, funky, agile. Again, I was naive enough not to know or remember that an unwound G and/or lighter gauge strings like 10s or 11s were considered new and revolutionary at one time although I did read about George Harrison reading about Eddie Cochran using a banjo string for an unwound G.
Eventually I got a bit more educated and settled on the Ernie Ball 10s, mostly for Fender guitars. Then I bought a couple of Gibsons - an ES-339 and a VOS SG. That 24.75 in scale was very different-feeling to the point where 10s on the SG felt loosey-goosey so I put 11s on for a time. But soon reverted back to 10s.
I've got self-inflicted wounds on the musical front: I joined and stayed with a band that did mostly outdoor gigs. In the South. In the summer. Cue buckets of sweat and nearly instantaneous corrosion of new strings in the humidity. My rhythm style could be reasonably compared to the gorilla smashing a Samsonite suitcase in his cage in the commercial so E, B, G and even D strings began snapping mercilessly. I finally studied up on the issue and examined/addressed the points of contact at the nut and especially the bridge where I filed any burrs out of saddles etc. It provided some help but not much. I tried Ball Rock & Roll despite not really understanding the difference. I tried Ball Reinforced. Hey, reinforced is stronger, right?
Then it was...Cobalt! Louder, bolder, etc. etc. I think they were. But unfortunately, Ernie Ball strings in any variety just seemed to corrode quickly even in the off-season indoors.
I then moved to D'Addario - whatever their plain version are called. Much better string life.
And then I got a Jaguar (and later a Jazzmaster) hence my presence here. I discovered quickly that surf music demands at least 11s. 10s were incredibly thin and wimpy even when played through a warm, rich 1961 Showman and outboard Fender reverb tank. 12s are even surfier and more closely match the original recorded tones but they were a bit too much of a departure especially as I had 10s on non-offset/non-surf guitars. So 11s it was on the offsets.
Somewhere in the above timeline I tried Elixirs in the days when Polyweb was the only coating. I found them kind of muffled and like many others the flaking of the coating put me off. I later tried the newer Nanoweb. Better but not premium-pricing better. Ironically, I tend to use the Nanowebs on acoustics and a thinline piezo-only acoustic-looking guitar - they sound great and last quite a while.
Also somewhere in the above timeline I tried the cryogenic strings. Ooooh! Were they Markleys? The store sales rep knew the marketing lingo: freezing the strings somehow (re)aligned the molecules in the metal of the strings making them...what? Stronger? Louder? Harder? The rep knowingly rolled his eyes at all the hype. I tried them anyway. Didn't notice any difference.
I guess you can say I'm a sucker for upsell in some situations so I tried the D'Addario NYXL. It took years - decades! - to learn things the hard way but these are excellent strings. Good life, good tone, consistency, resistant to breakage.
And what's this? Balanced tension? Who doesn't want balance in their life? Supposedly bending the A string requires the same effort as bending the B string despite the differences in thickness? Sorcery! Or maybe science! Maybe both? What the hell - I bought some. If I'm honest I can tell about 10-20% difference from the standard NYXL on bends and general feel so maybe there is something to it but I certainly wouldn't rule out any placebo effect.
My string objective now is simple: memorize the ball-end color codes because I always tear the plastic envelope open the wrong way and destroy the little guide printed on it.
