Alternative to Elixir Polywebs?

[nad]

The rumours are true, I checked with the source:

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your interest in ELIXIR® Strings and for taking the time to write to us.
A business decision was made to discontinue our Bass Strings with the POLYWEB®
coating. However, they are still available with the NANOWEB® coating. We
apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thank you for visiting our web site.

ELIXIR® Strings Customer Service and Support
REPLY TO: elixirstrings@wlgore.com
W L Gore & Associates, Inc.
P O Box 1488
Elkton, MD 21922-1488
Phone: 800.367.5533
FAX: 410.996.8585
ELIXIR, NANOWEB, and POLYWEB are trademarks of W L Gore & Associates Inc.

Anyhow, I've used these exclusively for years (except the flats on my P), and don't really like their Nanoweb strings as they are a bit too zingy and don't have the thick coating of the Polys that I loved so much.

Now taking any and all suggestions for a similar string: thick coating, slightly dulled sound, and extreme longevity. Cheers.

[rashrader]

Call online dealers and buy as many sets of polywebs as you can find. There have to be some left somewhere!!

[xshawnxearthx]

juststrings.com has some, but not many. i posted about this last month and no one beleived me. i am still on my hunt for a new string.

[nad]

Originally Posted by xshawnxearthx

juststrings.com has some, but not many. i posted about this last month and no one beleived me. i am still on my hunt for a new string.

Including me, and I apologize.

Yeah, I could horde them, but I'd rather just find a suitable alternative. Gonna try a handful of DR strings, and I used to like Fender NPS. Maybe just have to switch back to plebeian strings that I have to change once every few months.

[Minger]

Give me a heads up when you try the coated DR's if you do...The green coating would be pretty cool with my green basses...

[rashrader]

I have tried DR and D'addario coated strings. While the tone is somewhat superior, the longevity of them was nothing compared to the Elixir strings. The D'addario's sounded dead after about two days of playing. The DR's sounded fresh for about four days. The Elixir's last me upwards of two to three months. YMMV, of course.

[xshawnxearthx]

it is all good man. so far i have found nothing as good as elixirs.
i had actually thought about hording them, but realize that eventually i will run out, better to do it now, then to do it later.

i have tried...

dr's, black beauties.: flake within a day, dead within one gig. mark dronge from dr sent me a brand new set because the said they shouldnt die within one use. 2nd set her sent me were a bit better, but just not great. he also sent me extra string life sealer, which mind you, killed an e string before i even pl;ucked it on an uncoated set.

d'addario exp: psh, biggest waste of money, dead after 2 hours and big time flakes.

nanoweb: have great zing, but once the coating wears off(which is did for my fretting hand in the first position, and my picking are)the strings will slowly die.

warwick emp coated are new, and they were the best ones so far, but still did not last as long as i had hoped they would. had a pretty decent zing to them, but for 50.00 shipped, it wasn't worth it in my mind.

black diamon: second biggest waste of money. oh wait, i didnt buy them, the guy was going to start a sponsorship program but the strings were so bad i never followed up with it.

stringlife, or "extra" stringlife self coating: biggest waste of money ever. between having to go buy another E string because it killed it before i even played the strings, i was pretty irritated. never again with that garbage.

so, at this point, i am putting in an older for optima 24k bass strings, in hopes that the gold resists my aicd sweat, and i will also be trying a snake oil brand set soon after.

in the mean time, i am using d'addario pro steels and trying not to sweat. if those others do not work, i will be going the denatured alcohol route and switching once a week.

[nad]

I think I'm going to try some "regular" strings for awhile, it's been so many years since I've used anything but Elixirs that maybe I'm due for a change anyhow.

One of my basses is strung up with some Nanowebs and they are fine, been in use for 8 months now. They just aren't quite as good as the Polys, but good enough.

[bkief1]

Two otions...

1. If you really are looking for coated strings, I have used these before with good success.

http://www.wyresstrings.com/products/strings-ptfe.asp

These are strings made by Dave Wyre in Canada coated with teflon.

or...

2. I use these now exclusively both on my basses and guitars. They are the Snake Oils from Dean Farley, a very knowledgeable man and super to work with

http://www.sobstrings.net

HTH

[xshawnxearthx]

i actually just ordered a set of snake oil strings. let the testing begin!

[cb56]

I tried the DR black beauties and they died within 2 or 3 weeks. The Elixirs lasted much longer but I don't like the slippery feel they have. I've just gone back to regular nicklewounds and try to remember to wipe them off after every set.

[zachbass02]

any tried anything from SIT? I had a set on a benevente I had. They lasted for a pretty good little bit. Once my nanowebs die on my jazz, I think I'm going to try those out again.

[FiedelP]

Can't we just bomb them with mails until they give us Polywebs back? I'm really angry: I was never satisfied with any kind of strings until I've used Polywebs. I HATE changing strings. I hate strings that are dead after a few hours of playing, at least on Jazz Basses.

Dirk

[xshawnxearthx]

Originally Posted by FiedelP

Can't we just bomb them with mails until they give us Polywebs back? I'm really angry: I was never satisfied with any kind of strings until I've used Polywebs. I HATE changing strings. I hate strings that are dead after a few hours of playing, at least on Jazz Basses.

Dirk

it really depresses me. seriously, ive tried every other coated strings, im sick of getting my hopes up in thinking anything is gong to be the same.

i'm at the point where i'm done playing bass because i hte dead strings and i cant afford to change them every practice/show.

[Keeaumoku]

Thought I'd toss this into the mix... although I've posted this in a couple of different threads:

I bought a set of Elixer Nanowebs for the first time only three weeks ago. Did this on the recommendation of my little gee'tar player. I balked at the price... $41.25 for a 4-string set... but I went ahead and got 'em anyway. Well... once I got 'em on my Stu Hamm Urge-II, I immediately fell in love. They had a feel I've never experienced before, and they sounded fantastic! I couldn't wait to gig with them!!

Fast forward to last week- Saturday... I noticed that the E string, right above the 3rd fret, that the coating appears to be peeling away... The strings still sound great... even the offending E... thus far... so I took my axe down to the store where I got the strings, and the owner/friend said he was going to try and get me a replacement E directly from Elixer...

cb56- I also tried the DR Black Beauties (set of 5). I got them the same day I bought the Elixers. I wanted to try them out, but I'm being honest here... more as a fashion statement... You see, my 5-stringer is an Am Dlx P-bass-5, Montego Black with the gold pick-guard, and it has a maple fret board. After putting these strings on, the contrast agaist the maple fret board and gold pick-guard, plus the blend with the black body... well, it was looking pretty good...

...I think these strings sounded just fine. They felt good to my left-hand fingers, but my right-hand fingers, the ones that do the plucking, hated these strings. Whenever I would try and do a 1/16th note phrase... you know, showing off... ...my fingers would get stuck every now and then. I dropped a truck-load of chops with those strings. Picking and slapping was no problem, but I only use a pick whenever we're playing a metal song, which isn't very often... Anyway, after only three weeks, I went back to the DR Marcus Miller Fat-Beams that I've always preferred. I wrote-off these Black Beauties as an expensive, $40.95, experiment in bass-string fashion...