I’m an advancing beginner and I’m at grade 3 now. Came back from grade 4, when the new grade 3 was released.
So, I recently bought new strings to my Cort Earth OP 70 acoustic guitar. I decided to buy a bit more expensive strings and bought these Elixir Nanoweb 10-47 strings to my guitar.
They seem very slippery, and I’m wondering does anyone have experience on these strings? Does the coating wear off at some point or are they going to be as slippery the whole time?
I’m thinking that it’s quite difficult to play chords when the strings feel like there is oil on them, so I’m considering to buy some different strings.
The first set of strings on my acoustic was Elixir Acoustic 80/20 bronze with Nanoweb coating. Looking back now having switched to D’Addario, it was indeed more “slippery”, but I don’t remember it having become more rugged with time. It probably wasn’t as distracting to me as it was my first-ever set of strings.
In any case, if you still feel uncomfortable with it after a few days, just replace them. At the moment I’m using D’Addario XT acoustic phosphor bronze strings. They are less slippery and have a nice, not too bright sound.
That said, I have used Elixir coated strings before and don’t recall finding them “slippery”, nor the coated D’Addario’s I am currently using. I also don’t recall the feel changing as they aged.
Maybe give it some time to get used to them as maybe it is just unfamiliar. And if it remains uncomfortable then chalk it up to experience and try something else, perhaps a better quality uncoated set of strings than what you had before.
Yeah it seems that I got my answer, the feeling of coated strings don’t change when they get aged. So I’ll do like you suggested, I’ll try if I can get familiar to this slighty more slippery feeling, and if I can’t get over it, I’ll try something else.
Previously I had Martin Acoustic SP’s and maybe I’ll go back to them or try some D’addarios or La Bellas…
Been a while since I’ve used coated strings. Not sure how much the tech has changed. The coating starts to fray around the area you pick and strum. It’ll eventually wear out near the fretting hand too. But that’s when it’s time to get new strings.
I had similar feeling when switching from D’Addario XT Phosphor Bronze to D’Addario XSAPB1047 Acoustic Phosphor Bronze. It felt very slippery, it got better after a week or so, probably due to the wear of coating. Probably a common characteristic of high-end strings.
XT are nice and warm although bit grippy, XS are super smooth and have more sustain but the bass feels weaker comparing to XT.
I’ve tried all sorts, currently I have a couple of favourites (on different guitars). On my HB travel guitar I have Silk and Steel, their lower tension allows me to use medium gauge instead of light and allows me to play a 2 fret bend. On my cheap Ovation copy I use La Bella lights, they just seem to suit it well and sound better than anything else I’ve tried on it. On my Freshman Apollo I use Martin Eric Clapton signature strings, they sound great and last well.
My Electrics all have D’Addario strings on them 9’s to 11’s.
I think this is subjective, as long as you are happy with the sound it’s fine. For me I can tell after a month that the sound is fading, feels like its coming from a tin can and sustain has decreased.
I have the same issue with the Elixir Nano strings I just put on. They feel so slippery and my chords are not as clean as before as my fingers keep sliding. I do prefer the sound of these strings compared to the original strings that came with my new Fender CC-60S acoustic guitar. I too am wondering/hoping the coating wears down a bit with time. I will report back after a couple of weeks. I have been playing everyday for three months and am a beginner.
I tried Elixir strings for a while. They do feel smoother to me (I wouldn’t have said slippery, but I think I know what you’re getting it). They didn’t sound quite as bright, in my opinion. The coating definitely wears off, and I think it became a little less slick feeling as well. I didn’t like the way the coating would wear off (happened pretty quickly, in my case) and the slightly darker tone, so I went back to non-coated strings.