Ernie Ball announced their Cobalt strings at NAMM 2012. And since then they have grown massively in popularity, in no small part due to endorsement from some of the guitar worlds most idolized rockstars – the likes of John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Steve Morse and Steve Vai.

Cobalt is more than just a cool name though – it's actually got a spot on the Periodic Table! Symbol “Co”. It's described as “a silvery-white, hard, brittle metallic element…” not to mention it's got an atomic number of 27 and a melting point of 1495°C… METAL! Literally. \m/

When combined with iron to form the composition of the string, a stronger magnetic pull against guitar pickups occurs, which yields two important benefits over standard steel strings: They are louder and clearer.

If those two things alone aren't enough to appeal to your inner rockstar, how about the fact that they last longer than Ernie's Trademark Slinkys, have a “tighter” yet “fatter” sound and come in this snazzy packaging ?

Let's hear a little about what the experts have to say about it shall we?