WireNWood's guitar string shootout.

[WireNWood]

Elixir strings made me curious.

Yes, they last longer.. but are they worth the price? They cost 3 to 4 times as much as a basic set of D'adds. If they last twice as long, that's still not a deal. No one could give me any real numbers, just vague observations like "they lasted a long time".

I decided I would keep some data and really find out. I play four nights per week, 52 weeks a year, so I do go through some strings. In addition I am an agressive - and sweaty - player.

So, every night after the gig for almost two years I took notes...still doing it today.

So.... your mileage may vary.... a thousand factors effect string life, different from person to person, not the least of which is body chemestry (see Rory Gallagher's Strat). Of course different people are looking for different things, and see the same thing in different ways. This report would not be pallateable for commerical purposes because for good or bad, I name names. It's a tad wordy - best leave at least ten minutes to read. Hope a few of you enjoy it.

WireNWood's guitar string shootout/comparison study. (http://users.wildblue.net/thearbees/report.htm)

[Bytor1975]

Wow. Very impressive, informative, and quite interesting.

Since you wrote this piece, have you been collecting info on the other string brands that you mention at end of the article? At what point will you have gathered enough information to include those findings?

I'm going to have to try the Elixirs on my electrics. I've been using them on the acoustics for about 4 years now, but just never gave any thought to the electric strings.

[WireNWood]

Most of those other strings are still sitting on the shelf waiting to be installed. The MF Premium 10's are installed on 3 or 4 guitars now. I'll add any of them to the document after I've used up three sets.

With as much as I'm tearing apart guitars, these 3 or 4 sets currently in operation are likely to become ONE set that stayed on until it died.

Also, with as many guitars as I have, any one guitar may or may not get played at all in a week - so these things develop rather slowly.

[Justpickin]

Wow!..WNW....interesting review.. :thumbsup: I've avoided the Elixirs, figured just another gimmick, my assumption was if you coat a string, aren't you in essence doing the same thing as coating it with your body oil, skin, etc. We clean our strings to get what ever our hands have "coated" them with off the strings. But you have shed some light, and your experience allows me to trust it. I've read some reviews on the strings, usually the only gripe I've heard is the sound of the strings is not for those who play hard rock. Now I'm not a "hard rocker", but do go there at times, so figured if there is a gripe about them, perhaps they lack in other areas as well, and for the 10 bucks I didn't want to try them. SO I forgot about them, stuck with my trusted EB's. But, after reading your review, I just placed an order for a couple sets. "Need to see for myself" so to speak. We'll see!............... :guitar:

[aaronl]

wow dude great stuff man! :bow:
funny to see you did not try ernie balls since they are so so so popular.
i would be interested to see the fender bullets because in my short time playing they really seem to need to be replaced faster than any others i use.

i may try some of those strings now the $10 ones, if they last that long u are right it isnt that bad of a deal at all!

[romdos]

Very good report... I began using Elixers whe I received a set for Christmas on year... They currently live on My Flying V and my Hagstrom, and both Guild Acoustics... The strings on the Guilds have been on over 2 years now, and still sound good... although I'll replace them soon... I've been trying others out recently, and currently have D'addario's on both Strats, and am about to try John Pearse on the Tak... I used DR's for years and liked them as they tended to last longer than anything I tried previously, so I'd be interested on any data you get from them...

[Jossy]

Excelent...

Saludos.

[WireNWood]

BUMP.

IT IS BACK.

Apologies for the hiatus. For a while I didn't have a real ISP. The Shootout is back online and now includes Fender, GHS, and Snake Oil strings.

The link at the top of this thread has been fixed/updated, but here again is the correct/current location for Ray's Guitar String Shootout:

http://users.wildblue.net/thearbees/report.htm


I did not have a current backup copy to start with. I know I lost my review of DR Black Beauties, and perhaps others as well. If anyone here copy-n-pasted the text of the old study or even printed it, I'd really appreciate your help to restore my old work. Thanks.

[Cat]

WNW if I was you Id be putting together an abstract of your study and shopping it round to guitar mags for publication.

I can see it now "Guitar strings, the real results, a guitarists study".

Cat

[stratcat51]

An eye-opening report for sure. I just bought a set of the Dean Markley Signature Series, but have yet to install them. I use 9's, should probably switch to 10's, but old habits are hard to break.

I forget why I wanted to try the Dean Markleys, I just know some one famous uses them so I thought I'd give 'em a shot. Years ago, I used D'Addario strings exclusively because a friend I respected praised them highly and I was tired of Ernie Ball's breaking and going dead much too quickly. The D's served me well, then someone talked me into using Dean Markley Blue Steels. I liked the tone better and they seemed to last as long. Then I went back to playing bass and when I came back to guitar I just started using Boomers for no particular reason. They are an "ok" string, but not particularly noteworthy. This report tempts me to trying something else, like the Elixer's and the Darco's.

Oh, bass strings? Rotosounds have never let me down, tone wise, and seem to last twice as long as Fender strings. I bought a 5 string Fender Jazz Std. some years ago and to my surprise the factory strings sounded great! I left them on (the first and only time I've never replaced the strings on a new purchase) and the dealer told me they were Fender Studio Bass strings. So when they finally did need replacing, that is what I bought. I was never more disappointed in a set of strings in my life. I played one gig, yanked 'em off and went back to Roto's. :smiling s

[WireNWood]

Cat, thank you for the vote of confidence, but in the real world no magazine is going to publilsh a study that even suggests, not to mention straight-out states, that a low-priced, unadvertised product is better than a bigname, flashy brand that buys full-color ads in the mag. It ain't gonna happen. The western media and truth are incompatible.



John: I've been a fan of Rotosounds since the 70s. I wonder about the Blue Steel bass strings. I'm sure I'll eventually have Blue Steels in the string report.

[Justpickin]

Nice to see this back Ray....very informative, it was your study that made me go out and try the Elixirs......I still like and use them.

[Stratalong]

Quick $0.02: I like D'Addarrio strings. I like the Elixir's more. Even use the Polyweb on my one and only acoustic. Dean Markley Signature series strings have nearly turned into my fav electric strings though. I play mostly home/office, seldom jam w/others. The number of electrics I have mean that one might not get played for a month or more, and the DM signatures have held up in the case nicely.
I sell lots of brands of strings, and of course get them for myself cheap, so I can choose whatever, but the DM's have worked great!

[ldelo]

Stratalong, don't know why anyone'd laugh at your collection of gits, there's some cool stuff in there! I am a Warmoth fanatic as well...

Anyway, Ray, very very nice string review, and some less-than-obvious conclusions... I've long been a D'add fan, but likely because I just got tired of trying to keep straight in my mind what I bought last, how much it cost, whether it was worth it or not, what the last several brands I bought before that were, etc. I just settled on D'Add's, likely because I've never gotten any bad stinker sets, and that was that. But now I might have to try the Elixirs, they seem to have rated very well.