Rehashchap
Feb-18-2010, 12:26am
I have recently begun gigging with a viola-playing friend of mine, and have found myself playing some fast songs that require flawless timing and tight strum patterns. Having experienced the magic of Elixir Nanoweb strings on a previous mandolin, I finally ordered some up for my new Epiphone F5 (a modest model, but it's coming into its own and sounding better everyday). I ordered two sets of medium gauge. When the strings that were already on my F5 broke, I was more than happy to replace them with the new, shiny, guaranteed-to-forgive-my-sweaty-fingers Elixirs. I strung them up, and they sounded great.
Three weeks later, I released a stream of obscenities during a practice session as I felt one of the D strings give out and break. I thought to myself, "That's OK. I've been playing quite a bit and have been working on some fast and difficult strum patterns that I probably wasn't getting the best angle of attack on at first." So I painstakingly restrung my mandolin with the other set of Elixirs, relieved when they were finally tuned up and ready to go.
A week later, I found myself releasing another, more colorful stream of obscenities as I felt the D string give way again during a practice session. I was in awe. A single week had gone by, and I looked down to see a popped string and seven others that didn't look too great themselves.
I vowed that I would never buy Elixir's again, and decided to put on a pair of those trusty D'Addario bronzes that you see in every guitar store. Imagine my shock when I looked at them after a day of playing to find them corroded, and nick in the winding of the D string, no less!
So now I open the floor to ask if anyone else has had similar experiences with Elixirs. I understand people's reservations about their tone and feel, but I never thought I would be pledging disloyalty to them on account of the reason they are supposed to be so great in the first place. And that's the 'revolutionary' Nanoweb coating that is supposed to give people with acid-fingers(still not sure if I suffer from that) a reason not to want to throw their precious baby across the room.
Simply put, I still want to have faith in those Elixirs, but am finding it quite difficult at the moment. And after all of this, are there any suggestions for alternative strings?
Three weeks later, I released a stream of obscenities during a practice session as I felt one of the D strings give out and break. I thought to myself, "That's OK. I've been playing quite a bit and have been working on some fast and difficult strum patterns that I probably wasn't getting the best angle of attack on at first." So I painstakingly restrung my mandolin with the other set of Elixirs, relieved when they were finally tuned up and ready to go.
A week later, I found myself releasing another, more colorful stream of obscenities as I felt the D string give way again during a practice session. I was in awe. A single week had gone by, and I looked down to see a popped string and seven others that didn't look too great themselves.
I vowed that I would never buy Elixir's again, and decided to put on a pair of those trusty D'Addario bronzes that you see in every guitar store. Imagine my shock when I looked at them after a day of playing to find them corroded, and nick in the winding of the D string, no less!
So now I open the floor to ask if anyone else has had similar experiences with Elixirs. I understand people's reservations about their tone and feel, but I never thought I would be pledging disloyalty to them on account of the reason they are supposed to be so great in the first place. And that's the 'revolutionary' Nanoweb coating that is supposed to give people with acid-fingers(still not sure if I suffer from that) a reason not to want to throw their precious baby across the room.
Simply put, I still want to have faith in those Elixirs, but am finding it quite difficult at the moment. And after all of this, are there any suggestions for alternative strings?