Gauges: .010, .013, .017, .030, .042, .052. Made of nickel-plated steel, Dean Markley HELIX HD electric guitar strings are light top, heavy bottom strings that allow you the luxury of more bending on the higher strings, while getting a little more oomph out of your bottom half. However, that"s not the only reason these are special strings. It took over a year and many trials for the Dean Markley team to find just the precise elliptical shape for the winding wire that makes up the patent-pending, Hyper-Elliptical Winding process of the Helix HD. This shape then had to be paired with the correct winding process that would produce these stupendous resultsthe maximum mass for the string"s diameter that still maintained the string"s vibrancy. The Hyper-Elliptical Winding process results in an increased number of wraps along the length of the string. This increases the mass of your electric guitar string, without changing its diameter or material. More mass makes a fuller tone; more windings give a smoother feel as well as a brighter, more resonant tone. This provides a smoothness and performance unrivaled by conventional strings. When you press and strum a normal wrap wire, your fingers experience resistance as they go down into each depression between the wraps. With the Dean Markley HELIX HD guitar strings you"ll experience smoothness. These less coarse wrappings let your fingers glide more easily and smoothly along the surface of the wrap wire.Light top, heavy bottom guitar strings Nickel-plated steel Features Hyper-Eliptical Winding process for smoother play Gauges: .010, .013, .017, .030, .042, .052