D'Addario EXL116 Medium Top/Heavy Bottom (.011–.052): the heavier hybrid gauge

D'Addario EXL116 is the company's Medium Top/Heavy Bottom hybrid gauge, .011 to .052, one step heavier on top than D'Addario's EXL140 hybrid. The plain top three strings, .011, .014, .018, are pulled from the Medium/Blues-Jazz Rock EXL115 rather than a Regular Light set. The wound bottom three, .030, .042, .052, match EXL140's bottom by gauge number. Guitar Center's own listing describes the result plainly: "clear voiced mids and highs with thunderous lows."

Construction is D'Addario's standard XL Nickel recipe: nickel-plated steel wrap wire precision-wound over a hexagonally-drawn, high-carbon steel core, uncoated, made in the USA. D'Addario's own product page lists the set as "Ideal For: All Genres" and describes the gauge split as "a hybrid, providing the high strings moderate flexibility, with a booming, tight low-end," without narrowing the set to any one style.

The obvious assumption is that EXL116 beats EXL140 by adding tension everywhere. D'Addario's own published tension chart says otherwise. Do the arithmetic on the two sets' own numbers and the entire 7.8-lb gap traces to the plain top strings, not the wound bottom.

EXL116's plain top, .011 (19.6 lbs), .014 (17.8 lbs), .018 (18.6 lbs), pulls 56.0 lbs combined. EXL140's lighter top, .010 (16.2 lbs), .013 (15.4 lbs), .017 (16.6 lbs), pulls only 48.2 lbs, a 7.8-lb difference. The wound bottom tells a different story: D'Addario's own tension chart lists EXL140's .030/.042/.052 at the identical 24.7, 25.6, and 21.1 lbs as EXL116's own bottom three, 71.4 lbs combined on both sets, even though the two sets pair that bottom with a different top. Because the bottom three don't move, the entire 7.8-lb gap between the sets (127.4 lbs versus 119.6 lbs) comes from the top three strings alone.

The practical read: if you liked EXL140's low end but wanted a firmer, more resistant top three strings for hard picking or heavier down-tuned rhythm work, EXL116 delivers exactly that change and nothing else. If you wanted a genuinely heavier bottom too, look at EXL117 Medium Top/Extra Heavy Bottom (.011-.056) instead.

Counting Crows co-founder David Bryson strings his number-one guitar, a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior he bought while recording August and Everything After, with D'Addario EXL116, confirmed by Premier Guitar's 2014 Rig Rundown. The guitar carries some period-appropriate updates (an adjustable wraparound bridge, a rewound pickup, replaced knobs) for a nearly 70-year-old instrument, but Premier Guitar frames those as ordinary vintage-guitar upkeep, not string-gauge-driven changes.

Premier Guitar's own dek for the piece describes Bryson's job as carving out sonic space in a "triple-guitar assault," and the article frames his approach as a producer's sensibility, serving the song rather than soloing over the band. Why he lands on EXL116 specifically isn't spelled out in the piece, so CYS reports the documented gauge without guessing at his reasoning.

D'Addario's own site separately features EXL116 in imagery tied to Alter Bridge's Mark Tremonti, but that's marketing association, not a documented gauge. Tremonti's actual touring gauge, confirmed in his own MusicRadar interview ("on the bottom three strings I use the gauges that come standard in a set of 11s and on the top three I use the gauges that come standard in a set of 10s") and corroborated by Premier Guitar's 2023 Alter Bridge Rig Rundown, which lists his Eb-tuned PRS at 49-38-28-17-13-10, is a custom hybrid he assembles himself: the top three strings (.010, .013, .017) from an EXL110 pack, the bottom three (.028, .038, .049) from an EXL115 pack, not the packaged EXL116. See Tremonti's full, sourced gauge breakdown for that distinction.

• Eb standard and Drop D rhythm playing where you want more resistance on the top three strings than EXL140 gives, without jumping to a full Medium gauge everywhere
• Players who found EXL115's .028/.038/.049 bottom too light once they started tuning down, but don't want to relearn bend technique on the top strings
• Heavy-handed pickers who want more mass under a hard attack on the plain strings specifically

• Straight E standard with a light touch: the heavier .011 top feels stiffer than a Regular Light set for no tonal payoff if you're not tuning down
• Beginners: a heavier top gauge is harder on uncalloused fingers than D'Addario's lighter EXL110 or EXL115 sets
• Maximum tuning stability under aggressive drop tunings: D'Addario's NY Steel-core NYXL line trades some of XL Nickel's classic tone for more break resistance and tuning stability at comparably heavy gauges

EXL116 is a narrower, more deliberate upgrade than it looks on paper. It doesn't make EXL140 heavier across the board, it swaps in a firmer top three strings and leaves the wound bottom essentially where it was. That makes it the right call specifically when EXL140's low end already feels right but its top strings feel thin under a hard pick, not a blanket "heavier is better" upgrade. David Bryson's Les Paul Junior is the one documented case CYS could verify; if your reasoning matches his, more resistance on top without changing the bottom, this is the correct next gauge.