Elixir strings... hoping they are worth the money

throw_this_away · Post by **throw_this_away** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:19 pm

Just got some light gauge Elixir strings for my 72' today. At double the price of the D'Addario light gauges that I normally use... I was a little unsure. They claim 3-5 times longer life with their coating... but I have doubts.

Anyway, they sound great fresh (don't all strings) but it will be interesting to see how they hold up. I do 95% fingerstyle and I have pretty sweaty hands (why I decided to try coated strings). The feel of the coat on my fingers is fine by me... but I worry about the coat getting "fuzzy" and thus making them feel odd, and attracting more gunk... killing sound. I also wonder how they will hold up to my heavy picking.

Any experiences/opinions from you guys? If the strings hold their current sound for a long time I will get more for sure... but I expect they will lose the brightness fast and hold a moderate tone longer.

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:27 pm

I use them and like them a lot. They last long, sound great, and have a smooth, "buttery" feel that's great for slides.

Eventually, the coating will start to come off and then you will replace them. But for me they last more than twice as long as regular strings.

Did you go with the long scale strings this time?

andrew · Post by **andrew** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:29 pm

Did you get polywebs or nanowebs?

throw_this_away · Post by **throw_this_away** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:15 pm

Polyweb... (what is the diff from nanoweb?)

and I did get long scale... hahahah. In my defence I got medium scale once because I figured that I wouldn't have to cut them as much as long scales... I didn't realize that they would only reach full thickness past the nut. Live and learn. Mind you I did rig them to play fine... but I could feel the gauge change on the A and E.

throw_this_away · Post by **throw_this_away** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:31 pm

Jeff... how do they hold their initial brightness? Do you wipe them down after playing?

jaybic · Post by **jaybic** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:40 pm

John - I too have used them and have sweaty hands. I have sort of mixed feelings about them. I found the coating to something really difficult to get used to. After a while - 3 months maybe - I found that the coating started to wear off where the strings hit the frets. I play 100% fingers so can't comment on the pick style. Once the coating wore off at those places, they seemed to rust very quickly. I have since gone back to D'Addario's due to them being cheaper.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:46 pm

Polywebs have a thicker coating than nanowebs and they 're affected by the coating, while nano's are more like regular strings. I don't like nano's, but i love polywebs. The coating protecting the string is one thing, but they sound different to me and I think they sound great. The low end on them is huge on my stingray bass. I've never tried them on a rick, but now I'd love to.

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 6:33 am

I've never tried the polyweb(thicker coating) strings.

The nanowebs look, feel and sound pretty much like an uncoated RW string, except that they are slicker feeling. I notice it on both my fretting fingers and my plucking fingers. I really like the slick, consistent feel. They go on a little less bright than your average set of nickel rounds. But they last very long and keep that tone. I have a set on one bass that has to be 1.5 years old. Another nice thing about them is that if you have a bunch of basses and leave one in the case for a while, the elixers will still feel/sound new when you return to it.

When the coating starts to fall off, its probably going to come off where it contacts the frets first, but I can't say I've ever seen a string rust. Nickel doesn't rust. Tarnish, yes...rust no.(Not trying to be a tool, here...not consciously anyway!

)

I do wipe my basses down after I play them. Its nice to pick up the bass next time and have the neck and strings feel slick and clean.

throw_this_away · Post by **throw_this_away** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:03 am

I will start wiping down my strings... and I will be sure not to use a pick with the elixirs (my band currently makes fun of me when I change bases for tunings... they will love this).

My issue is that I boil my strings (brings back tons of life) about once per set... and when I can buy 2 regular sets for the price of one elixir... then they better last 4 times as long to make it worth while.

But so far I do like the tone.