Elixir Strings 19027 Coated Nickel Electric Guitar Strings, Custom Light (.009-.046)

Great guitar strings

I’m more of a Martin strings guy but Elixir is always gonna sound good. It’s elixir.

Cool, I get to be the first person to write a very public review of Elixir's new series of electric-guitar focused strings. While I don't really follow guitar media anymore (been a while since I received magazines and such), the fact that even an Elixir-only player was TOTALLY unaware of these coming out made me extra-intrigued by them.They showed up while I was attempting to order my usual strings, the Medium (.11 - .49) Nanoweb series, and at first just confused; since when were there Optiweb coated strings? What's the difference? Most importantly, can they really improve their long-standing king of the "$10+" strings given their monopoly on it already?Basically, the answer is yes...by quite a bit. I'll concede the following points before getting in to a succinct review of the product, as it's important:1. I've been totally converted to Elixir strings for about 2 years now, after well over a decade of using D'Addarios or the occasional Ernie Ball Slinky when on sale.2. From my observations, Elixirs in general are a love/hate product and "technology" with few people posting that they're just whatever. Anybody who falls in to the hate/dislike camp for whatever reason likely isn't going to be swayed over by these.3. For some reason, after finding out about a new line of Elixirs I WANTED to like them, so I waited a bit to review them to ensure to minimize any confirmation bias.Those 3 points addressed, I'll get to it: IMHO, Opitweb is a pretty big improvement in two ways, and lI think I'll continue using them over Nanowebs unless their longevity turns out to be dramatically shorter. After restringing my primary guitar, I noticed right away that these didn't seem to require any major post setup stretching or adjusting. D'addarios usually require 3 rounds of tuning, stretching, and then re-adjusting before settling in, at least for me. The nanowebs usually take just 2, but occasionally require a 3rd round after a bit of playing.Maybe I'm just getting better at stringing my guitar and using locking tuners, but after a single round of post thread stretching, they've been remarkably steady in holding their tune. So much so that I have to wonder if it's not the strings, but whatever.Most importantly they have a much brighter and...sharper(?) sound to them, and it's very very noticeable both unplugged and amped up. Not sure about the composition of them and in general I'm not very familiar with what metal or construction technique is involved in what brand, but whatever flack coated strings usually get for being muddy isn''t applicable with these. When tracking through the everyman setup (Scarlett USB Interface -> GR5 and S-Gear 2) there is a very easy to hear difference in high-end frequencies.So TL;DR - extremely similar to the existing product from Elixir, but with a slightly improved sound (if crisper high-end is what you want) and subtle but definitely smoother feeling action when sliding around the fretboard. If you like Elixirs now, you'll almost certainly like these the same or more. If you don't, you probably won't be won over with these. But, if you're somebody who loves the sound of a fresh set of D'Addarios or Slinkys and hates how quickly they fade, give these a shot; might save you money in the end.

Excellent

My son has sweaty hands and plays daily so strings either rust or snap within a few months. These have lasted an entire year. No rust, no snapped strings.

Coating is not as slippery as the nanoweb coating. Easy to switch to from regular strings. Stays in tune well and are very fun to play on.

Might go to rock strings for the show

THEY are a little bigger than my other ones but they work great and keep up with the charging and play with freedom to move around cordless