Best brand of guitar strings?

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Going downtown soon to my favorite music store to pick up a years supply of strings. I've tried a couple of decent brands, but I'm curious what everyone uses, brand and gauge wise. What are your favorites? And why? Thanks in advance!

Depending on your style and what sound you like, you will need different types and sizes of strings.

I mostly play my own songs I wrote, but many of them are in the style of the late 1960s to 1ate 1970s rock bands and I do some cover tunes from those years too (The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Boston, Kansas, Blue Oyster Cult, etc.)

My first ten years of playing I used whatever brand I could get, but always light gauge (.009 or .010 1st string, plain wire 3rd string). For a while in the 1980s I used Fender Super Bullets, but the bullet ends broke way too often so I stopped using those.

The past twenty years or so I've used D'Addario XL Nickel Round Wound strings on my Fender Stratocaster. I always get the EXL 110 Regular Light 10-46.
The string sizes in inches are .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046

The .010 is what works for my 1st string. I tried extra light gauges before that had a .009 but they broke too easily for my style of playing.
I like having the plain wire 3rd string for rock leads. Wound G strings are too hard to bend and wear out quickly if bent a lot. Also, one's bridge saddle must be adjusted for a different string length for intonation to be set properly if one switches from a plain 3rd to a wound 3rd or vice versa (assuming your guitar has individual bridge saddles for each string, if not it's a bit trickier).

I use Ernie Ball or whatever brand single strings for spares. If the strings have been on more than a month or if one of the bass strings (4th, 5th, 6th) break I will replace the whole set. If the strings are less than a month old and one of the plain wire strings (1st, 2nd, 3rd) break, I usually only replace that string. If you replace just one string on an old set, that one string will be so much brighter in tone and louder than the others that it is quite noticeable in a bad way. Also, if one of the bass strings snaps it usually means the others are also about ready to snap.

How long the strings last depend partly on how much you play, how hard you play, and whether or not you wipe the strings off to clean them when you're done with a session (I have hardly ever done that, but I know it is better for the strings and guitar if you do). Where I say one month as my cutoff date for replacing a whole set, you might have two weeks or two months instead.

I have used .016 for G, .024 for D, etc. when those were the only spare string sizes available. I really like the sizes of the D'Addario XL set I usually get. Like I said though, depending on your style and what tones you prefer, different brands and sizes of string, even different metals, might suit you better.

While I'm at it, I might as well also share my choice of pick. For more than twenty years I have used Jim Dunlop nylon picks exclusively. I prefer the gray .73mm size for the degree of flexibility I like, but can play with the size above or the size below if necessary. The thicker is darker color and stiffer; the thinner is lighter color and more flexible, the .73mm is just right for me. I like these picks because they have a textured surface easy to hold onto and they last forever. Plastic picks of the flexibility I like break too easily.

If I ever get more famous, you might win a trivia contest knowing the above facts about my equipment. Peace TBG

D'addario's are the best in my oppinion. I use .011's but I think I will drop down to .010's as I have been playing mostly lap steel lately and my hands are not as strong as they used to be.
If you can't get the D'addarios, GHS are also good. I have been playing SIT's on my steels and they are great but I have never tried them for standard guitar.

Thanks for the replies guys. I actually use D'addario right now.
I should have mentioned in the OP, but my main guitar is a Jackson DK2M with a floyd rose. Any preference for strings on floyd rose systems?

I always used .009's with my Kramer ( huge frets, original Floyd Rose, man I miss that guitar) I think they were called super lights. If you go with a different gauge than you had before you may have to adjust the tremolo. I always set mine to "float" so I could raise and lower the pitch.

Ernie Ball Pink pack (.009 set) either the regulars or the nickel wound. I used to like their 5150 set which was a custom .009 set comprised of the .008 top, and the .010 set 'g'(unwound), but they stopped making those. --with the 5150's it was easier to get feedback and harmonics from the top (low) 'e' as it was a .041 instead of the regular .042.

Acoustic: Elixir .012-.053

Electric: Ernie Ball power slinky .011-.048 or skinny top-heavy bottom .010-.052

I like heavier strings on electric b/c I play almost entirely acoustic (probably 98%). More often than not for electric I go with the power slinky, but sometimes I change it up.


edit: Also, since BicyclingGuitarist brought it up, I second on the Dunlop nylon picks, all day long. The .96 is my go-to for both electric and acoustic. Sometimes a heavier 1.14, usually when I can't find a .96 but the 1.14 is a real bruiser, really fun to play with, if a bit awkward.