D'Addario EXL140 Light Top/Heavy Bottom (.010–.052): the best-selling hybrid gauge

D'Addario EXL140 is the company's Light Top/Heavy Bottom hybrid gauge, and by D'Addario's own account, its best-selling electric guitar string. The top three strings, .010, .013, .017, are lifted straight from a Regular Light set. The bottom three, .030, .042, .052, come from a much heavier set instead of scaling evenly across the board. D'Addario's own product page describes the result as a set with "a deeper low-end than Regular Lights, balanced with comfortable playability."

Construction is D'Addario's standard XL Nickel recipe: nickel-plated steel wrap wire precision-wound over a hexagonally-drawn, high-carbon steel core. The hex shape is what D'Addario credits for the set's intonation and durability, the wrap wire grips the flat sides of the core instead of slipping around a round one. EXL140 has used that same construction since 1974, uncoated, made in the USA.

A uniform gauge forces a tradeoff. Go light across the board and bends stay easy, but the low strings can feel loose once you tune down. Go heavy across the board and the low end stays tight, but every bend and vibrato gets stiffer too. EXL140 splits the difference: the top three strings keep a Regular Light's easy bend feel, while the bottom three add real tension for Eb standard, Drop D, and further down.

D'Addario's own published tension chart shows where that extra tension actually lives. The high E, B, and G strings pull 16.2, 15.4, and 16.6 lbs, ordinary Regular Light numbers. The wound D, A, and low E jump to 25.0, 26.3, and 22.0 lbs, for a 121.5 lb set total. Notice the peak isn't the thick .052 low E, it's the .042 A string at 26.3 lbs, because the low E is tuned to the lowest pitch even though it's the thickest string. That's why the bottom of an EXL140 set reads even and chunky rather than bottom-heavy.

Myles Kennedy strings all four of his touring PRS Myles Kennedy Signature guitars with EXL140, confirmed by Premier Guitar's 2023 Alter Bridge Rig Rundown. He tunes to Eb standard, Eb with a dropped C#, and at least one further alternate tuning depending on the song, running into two Diezel amp heads.

The heavier .030, .042, .052 bottom holds up under those detuned pitches without going slack, while the unchanged .010, .013, .017 top keeps his rhythm and lead playing feeling identical to a standard Light set. See the full Myles Kennedy rig breakdown for his guitars, amps, and effects.

• Eb standard, Drop D, and half-step-down tunings where you want the low strings to hold tension without changing how the top strings bend
• Hard rock and classic rock rhythm-and-lead players who don't want to relearn bending technique just to get a tighter low end
• Guitarists stepping down from standard tuning who don't want to jump straight to a full 11 or 12 gauge set

• Straight E standard with no down-tuning: the heavier .030 D string feels stiffer than Regular Light's .026 D, with no tonal payoff if you're not tuning down
• Maximum tuning stability under aggressive drop tunings: NYXL1052 uses the same gauge split with a NY Steel core built for that
• Players chasing maximum string life: coated sets outlast bare XL Nickel by several times over between changes

EXL140 earns its best-seller status by solving one specific problem: a low end that holds up once you tune down, without making the top strings feel like a different guitar. Myles Kennedy's Alter Bridge rig is the documented proof of that concept, four guitars, one gauge, tuned below standard on every one. If you live in Eb standard or Drop D and don't want your lead technique to change when you tune down, this is the standard-issue answer.