This set includes a pair of horseshoe and a pair of captives. Both 10 gauge 1/2". Surgical stainless steel.
i did not use a taper to gauge from a 12 to a 10. but the horse shoe one has a little sharp edge so its hard to put in unless your ear is already gauged to a 10. but the captive goes in easy even if its only gauged to 12. the captive just slid right on in my ear with no pain. but the ball is hard as hell to put on the captive. wehn i first opened the packege, i used plyers to open the captive. i put them inside and opened the plyers to open the captive just a bit to let out hte ball. then i put it in my ear and pused the ball back in. it probably took me 20 minutes to get the ball in. other than that get this becasue its awesome.
The captives look excellent but they are very difficult to put in. The horseshoes on the other hand are very simple to get in and out of the ear. Both are very basic but still look great.