More irritating to me is the way the coating frays where they contact frets and where you pluck/pick, though fingerstyle is much less destructive than a pick.
it doesn't happen anymore, at least since 2012 when they changed the formula of the coating, and in recent years they also upgraded it making it less slippery.
I have use them on acoustic and electric guitars since 2001, and since 2012 the stopped flaking, it just deteriorate a bit, but no more snow on the pickups
Has anybody here tried to extend the life of elixirs or are they so durable that they never go dead.
Elixirs are not cheap and I have a bunch of basses. I would like to know what my options are in that regard.
if you don't play them 8h straight every day, they are the perfect string, because the coating maintains them fresh and without dirt (they don't have space in the gaps of the winding, they are coated over the entire string.
the wonderful thing is that you don't have to worry about strings not sounding anymore if the bass is kept in the case for a long time.
the only downside is that the coating is not conductive, so with passive basses you won't lose the buzz from the ground when you touch the strings.
physical stiffing of the steel core, nothing else. the core of the strings is made of spring steel (acciaio armonico), which is the same kind of steel used for swords, which is elastic and can bend up to a certain breaking point.
the strings, contrary to a sword, are always in tension, the steel is stretched almost to it's breaking point (lower strings are farther from the breaking point, higher strings are nearer), so after some time, depending also on the use/abuse (plucking, bending, vibrating...), the steel start to become "stiff" and it loses flexibility.
one unknown method to revive strings is just detuning them for a while, to let the steel "rest" and regain his physical flexibility. however doing it too many times makes the steel lose strength, it's not an infinite method.
so, coated strings like Elixir only go dead when the steel become stiff and loses it's flexibility. they just start sounding with less harmonics, due to the stiffness. you can revive them a bit detuning for some hours.
also flatwound strings die in the same way, the only reason we can keep them for years is because we expect a dead and dull sound from flats, and they are stiffer (the flat wire makes them less flexible, without gaps, like every kind of wire in the world), so once they lose the initial brightness, they keep the same sound forever.
I like it that there are things about old basses that set them apart from each other and from modern instruments. Enjoy that bad boy!
