Elixir Guitar Strings

Elixir Strings are used by some of the world’s best guitar manufacturers. Yamaha, ESP and Kiesel guitars trust Elixir to represent their instruments. They need high-quality strings to represent their instruments. If the strings sound dead, the guitar won’t sound good. 

Elixir claims to have strings that maintain their tone longer than anyone else. They do this by coating the strings. The coating protects the string from rust, sweat, and anything else trying to ruin the strings. This allows them to maintain their tone for a much longer period of time. 

The Start of Elixir

The idea of coating guitar strings came as an accident. The team was using guitar strings as a way to create a new industrial push-pull cable at W. L. Gore & Associates. These cables required coating to provide the durability required for those cables. Guitar Players began to wonder if coating the string would sound good on a guitar. They began testing. The coating used on the push-pull cables sounded terrible. Elixir describes it as a day-old spaghetti noodle. They kept testing until finally they had a usable coating method.

The Different Coating Options

Nowadays, Elixir has 3 different kinds of coating: Nanoweb, Optiweb, and Polyweb. These coatings come in several different types of string gauges. Nanoweb and Polyweb are available for all guitar types. Optiweb is only available for electric guitars.  

The coated strings started with Polyweb. It is a thin polymer tube that protects the string from the elements. The Polyweb coating has the thickest of the three coatings. It is the darkest tone because it adds the most mass to the strings. 

[products=polyweb]

The Nanoweb strings were designed to feel more like a regular guitar string. They still have protection. The only difference between the coatings is how thick it is. Polyweb has a noticeable coating that can peel off. Nanoweb has much less coating that feels like a normal string. It is much brighter than Polyweb because there is less mass on the strings. 

[products=nanoweb]

Optiweb is for players who still think Nanoweb has too much coating. They wanted to make a string that had the shelf life of a coated string, but felt like a non-coated string. Optiweb has the least amount of coating on the string.  

[products=optiweb]

The price of Elixir strings is between 1.5-2x more than most other strings on the market. But the shelf life of the string lasts between 3-6x as long. I personally went from changing my strings every week to every 3 months when I switched to Elixir. This means that you save 1.5-4x your cost if you change your strings every time they get old.

Elixir strings have been dominating the market since 1997. They give players an option to increase the shelf life of their strings. The increased shelf life can save you money if you are playing all the time. They also sound good. Major manufacturers trusting Elixir shows how valuable the strings are. Check out Elixir strings at roxymusic.com today.