Elixir strings - up close and personal

marauder

wordy said:

marauder said:

I'm guessing that string is a Polyweb, not a Nanoweb?

Hmm... I'm just looking at my past orders, and I certainly ordered Nanoweb so far as I can see, but I may have had others too - couldnt swear to it.

Wow, I can only imagine how much coating is on a Polyweb then.

wordy

bluechargeboy said:

They sound new and shiny to me, but for my band that works well.

Yeah maybe thats that thing - I'm playing mostly alone, and trying to sound like James Taylor or Neil Young, so to my mind I'm shooting for something warm, percussive, quite folky really.

Horses for courses and all that.

impmann

Very much a Marmite string. I know plenty who swear by them, I'm not convinced by these or any of the other coated 'long life' strings.

We all have very different individual chemistry - some people's sweat is very corrosive. Mine is. And therefore I get one gig or rehearsal out of a set of strings before they go rusty/tarnished/dead and need changing. I tried Elixirs as it sounded like the answer to my problems... it wasn't. I rotted them after one gig and they just became an expensive set of worn out strings.

Bucket

stickyfiddle said: If I'm not gigging heavily I can run a set of Elixirs for 6 months at a minimum and they sound 95% as good as day 1 after that long.

All of this.

BigBearKris

I love Elixirs - they last for weeks and are very comfortable to play. They do indeed have 'broken in' kind of sound which is main reason for purchasing these.

monquixote

I love Elixirs on electrics. I like the slightly slippery feeling and they just stay the same for months and months. The only string that sounds better than Elixirs are DRs IMO and there isn't enough in it to overcome my hatred of changing strings. 

The Elixir bass strings however are crap. Nowhere near as good as the Warwick EMP strings for longevity and nowhere near DR Strings for sound.

chillidoggy

I'd like to be able to use non-coated strings, but they have the life of a mayfly on my guitars. So the Elixir's have been an expensive Godsend for me.

Drew_TNBD

I'm gonna try a set next time I buy strings. I started off with Ernie Ball slinky's, then went to D'addario a few months back. I prefer the sound of the D'addario's but they die after a few rehearsals!

ddlooping

I use Elixirs too, for both acoustics and electrics, and very happy with them.

Cool pics, @Misterg, you've been Wowed.

p90fool

i can't imagine anyone arguing the finer points of pickup design, whether a full maple cap sounds different to a veneer, or fine-tuning the pot and cap values in their guitar - and then putting Elixirs on the poor thing.

I change my strings before every single gig, and am even happier to continue doing so since I tried those crappy, overpriced things. The reason they don't seem to deteriorate is because they already sound three months old.

Misterg

marauder said:

I'm guessing that string is a Polyweb, not a Nanoweb?

 

The pictures are of a Nanoweb, I believe.

monquixote

p90fool said:

i can't imagine anyone arguing the finer points of pickup design, whether a full maple cap sounds different to a veneer, or fine-tuning the pot and cap values in their guitar - and then putting Elixirs on the poor thing.

They're probably too busy playing gigs

p90fool

monquixote said:

p90fool said:

i can't imagine anyone arguing the finer points of pickup design, whether a full maple cap sounds different to a veneer, or fine-tuning the pot and cap values in their guitar - and then putting Elixirs on the poor thing.

They're probably too busy playing gigs

Lol me too, twice a week, plus three or four paid studio sessions.
I'm sure if one of my regular engineers heard me playing with Elixirs he'd ask me what was wrong.

Being serious though, it is down to personal preference, and different music styles and gear choices make a huge difference, it's just that most of the stuff I get paid to do requires a bit of "zing".

citizen68

Converted to Elixirs 3/4 years ago & would never go back. Longevity is the thing I like about them & I've only broken 2 strings in 4 years and those had probably been on the guitar 5 months +.

Sporky

Given that different strings can sound a bit different, as can different bits of wood, pickups, blah blah blah, I don't see why there's a problem with choosing whatever gives you the combination of feel, sound, longevity and value you feel best suits.

Blueingreen

I bought Elixirs for the first time the last time I bought strings.  Absolutely love 'em and will not be going back to previous brands. 

stuagu

the only time i tried elixirs 1 broke as i put them on.... took them all off and put my normal strings on £10 poorer.

stickyfiddle

Sporky said:

Given that different strings can sound a bit different, as can different bits of wood, pickups, blah blah blah, I don't see why there's a problem with choosing whatever gives you the combination of feel, sound, longevity and value you feel best suits.

Well quite. For me it's not even an option- I can have a week of string-life for £5, or 6 months for £10 and setup my guitars to sound great. And they do sound great.

chillidoggy

p90fool said:

i can't imagine anyone arguing the finer points of pickup design, whether a full maple cap sounds different to a veneer, or fine-tuning the pot and cap values in their guitar - and then putting Elixirs on the poor thing.

I change my strings before every single gig, and am even happier to continue doing so since I tried those crappy, overpriced things. The reason they don't seem to deteriorate is because they already sound three months old.

Yes, but they still sound like they're 3 months old a year later!

ICBM

I don't think they sound played-in - or even new for that matter, although they do sound more like new than like played-in, to me. They just sound thin and tinny, mixed with a bit of lack of punch. I like genuinely played-in strings - not dead ones - I always keep them clean and I can get months out of them even on my gigging guitars. (Maybe weeks if I was gigging as much as some of you.)

I'm actually surprised that they last so long for other people - whenever I work on a guitar with some on that aren't nearly new they seem to be frayed both over the frets and where the pick hits them - you can feel the roughness of the material, I find this very annoying, possibly because I play with fingers only so I might feel it more.

I also find they have an annoying tendency to break - almost always at the tuner post - if they need to be slackened to do some work that doesn't require a restring. I don't know why, but it's noticeably more so than other strings.

And that's even before the feel of them, which is the worst thing - to me they feel greasy and like strings do at a very sweaty gig, constantly in need of wiping. Horrible. (Although I'm beginning to understand where my most hated guitar phrase comes from, if people actually like this feel .)

The D'Addarios are different - they felt draggy and like dirty normal strings, and sounded dead and muffled... but I think I'd probably choose them if I was forced to and it was them or Elixirs. Or take up the accordion.