Re: cheapest place to buy strings
oh no i must have made that a bit confusing...what i use on most of my guitars is one half of a normal set of 10s (E .010, B .013, G.017) and half of a set of 11s (D .028, A .038, E .049) that's what i ment by 1/2. i just buy each string individually from juststrings and make my own sets. this works great for me on 25.5" scale since i like a bit more string tension on the low strings but still want to do big bends on the unwound strings. on my Les pauls i use D'Addario 10-52 sets due to the shorter scale to keep the tension up on the wound strings. i also have one tele set up with 10-52 and i use that for drop D and standard E since i hate flabby strings when tuned down. for Eb you should be fine with my oddball part 11 part 10 sets if you wanted to give it a try. i've never tried the 10 1/2 sets myself since i wanted a .049 low E over the .048 (yeah even the .001 difference can be felt in tension when tuned down) and i wanted to keep a regular .010 on the high E for huge bends. yeah it's odd but it works real well. if your worried about the unwound strings when down 1/2 a step i'd use regular 11's but if it's mostly the flab in the wound strings you don't like it can't hurt to try my odd combo or those 10 1/2s...heck strings are cheap i tried tons of gauges to find what i like on each guitar depending on its scale length and what tuning i would be using it in.
-Mike