Stringjoy Flyers 12-52 Balanced Heavy Gauge - Flatwound Stainless Electric
Stringjoy Flyers 12-52 Balanced Heavy Gauge - Flatwound Stainless Electric
If you like your electric guitar strings smooth, substantial and very much not afraid of a little tension, the Stringjoy Flyers 12-52 Balanced Heavy set is the heavyweight end of the Flyers family. This is the set Stringjoy itself describes as the purist-preferred option: proper 12-52 flatwound territory, but engineered to retain considerably more clarity and versatility than the stereotypical dark, thuddy flats of old.
Flyers were developed to combine the things players already love about flatwounds – silky feel, reduced finger noise and a warm, rounded fundamental – with the definition that traditional flatwounds can sometimes surrender. The result is a string that feels unmistakably flat beneath your fingers but doesn't automatically remove all the top end from your guitar.
Construction uses a premium stainless steel ribbon wrap over a hex core. That smooth outer surface makes position changes and slides wonderfully slick while cutting down on the scraping noise you can get from roundwounds. It's particularly satisfying for chord work, jazz voicings and clean playing, but these strings aren't remotely confined to polite neck-pickup jazz tones.
Put some drive behind them and the extra clarity starts earning its keep. Stringjoy designed Flyers to work across jazz, rock, indie, folk, clean and driven sounds, so there's enough articulation to keep riffs and chords intelligible when the amp begins misbehaving.
The Balanced Heavy set runs .012, .016, .024w, .032, .042 and .052, with a wound third string. That gives the set a wonderfully consistent flatwound character across the middle and lower strings, while the heavier overall gauge provides a firm, stable response beneath both hands.
For players coming from lighter roundwounds, 12-52 will naturally feel considerably more substantial and may require some setup adjustment depending on the guitar. But if you already enjoy heavier strings – or you're specifically chasing the authoritative response of traditional flatwounds – there's something immensely satisfying about them. Dig in and they don't immediately surrender. Chords feel planted, rhythm work feels solid and the heavier wound strings provide plenty of body.
Every Flyers string is wound, inspected and packaged at Stringjoy's Nashville headquarters, following years of research, testing and refinement.
So yes, these are flatwounds. But they're flatwounds that are perfectly happy leaving the jazz club, finding a pedalboard and seeing what happens. Smooth as anything, reassuringly hefty and considerably less interested in sounding like it's 1957 than you might expect.
Features
- Stringjoy Flyers Flatwound Stainless Electric Guitar Strings
- Balanced Heavy 12-52 gauge
- Designed for 6-string electric guitar
- The heaviest of Stringjoy's standard 6-string Flyers sets
- Described by Stringjoy as its purist-preferred 12-52 flatwound gauge
- Premium stainless steel ribbon wrap
- Hex-core construction
- Silky-smooth flatwound playing feel
- Warm, rounded fundamental associated with classic flatwound strings
- Engineered for excellent clarity and note definition
- Retains useful high-frequency presence compared with traditionally darker flatwounds
- Smooth surface helps reduce finger movement noise
- Firm, substantial feel for players who prefer heavier strings
- Balanced-tension design for a more even response from string to string
- Wound third / G string
- Suitable for both clean and driven electric guitar tones
- Excellent for jazz, rock, indie, folk, blues and alternative styles
- Particularly well suited to players looking for traditional flatwound substance with greater modern clarity
- Developed through years of Stringjoy research and real-world testing
- Wound, inspected and packaged at Stringjoy HQ in Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Heavier gauges may require guitar setup adjustments when changing from significantly lighter strings
