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No more need to pay up for coated strings????

vindibona1

vindibona1

Apr 18, 2015
3,136
3,495
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#1
As I'm putting new DR Sunbeam strings on my Jazz Bass I'm looking at the back of the individual string wrappers and notice they are putting ads on the backs... and one caught my eye.

In big letters it says "COAT YOUR OWN STRINGS with STRINGLIFE"!
I'm attaching a photo of the ad, but here is what the rest of it says;

"Stringlife is as effective in prolonging the useful life of strings (when applied to the entire length of the sttring) as factory coated strings. Players may coat their favorite set of bass, acoustic or electric strings to make them last longer.

Stringlife liquid polymer coating bonds to strings by causing the positive charge of electrons in your strings to attract to the negative charged polymer. This creates a process called electrovalent bonding."

It looks like all the stores have them. $10. Here is a link to one of many sources. DR String Life Liquid Polymer String Coating

Has anyone else heard of this product before? I have always felt abused when asked to pay almost double the price for a cheap coating on strings that I reckoned could be easily done with the right product. I really don't have a need for coated strings, but thought I'd share this anyway.

Stringlife_coating.jpg
 
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#2
vindibona1 said:
Stringlife liquid polymer coating bonds to strings by causing the positive charge of electrons in your strings to attract to the negative charged polymer. This creates a process called electrovalent bonding."
Click to expand...

Marketing through technical jargon such as this doesn't do much for me personally.

Remember the "Vapor Shield Molecularly Modified Bass Strings" by La Bella? Are they still around?
 
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#6
MattZilla said:
I knew elixir in a can had to happen some time. I wonder if or not it actually relies upon electrovalence for bonding.

Hopefully that's a felt tip bottle and not a spray all over the place bottle.
Click to expand...

I think coating used to be a more involved process. The initial poly-web strings was basically a thin Gore-tex coating, a water-proofing process that the Gore company had an exclusive too. It was used extensively in clothing. Then someone got the bright idea to use it on guitar strings. But a lot of guys didn't like what it did to the tone. So they Elixir came out with "Nano-web", a different process of extra light coating of polymers... a process that could be duplicated in variation and is done so extensively, especially when string makers saw how much additional margin was involved. Yep. only time before someone came up with a DIY product.

I think so. The cap that I've seen on the picture would indicate a wipe-on application. I've always felt that the amount of increased cost for giving the strings a bath was abusive, but in a capitalist economic system you can price your product any way you see fit.
 
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#11
vindibona1 said:
Stringlife liquid polymer coating bonds to strings by causing the positive charge of electrons in your strings to attract to the negative charged polymer.
Click to expand...

Isn’t this the basis for powder coat paint, like they put on office filing cabinets and such? I’m not sure, but I think that involves actual electrical charging. - Please call me out if I’m wrong...
 
#12
I’ve used it.

The instructions say to wipe on and wipe off to “clean,” wipe on and let sit 24 hours to “coat.”

I did the latter on a new set of Chromes (and a Rotosound 77 low B)

The result is that the strings go on sounding a week or two old.

I use my strings until they’re well and truly dead, it’s been about a year and a half since I put them on. Don’t know that it took them particularly longer to reach “dead” tone, and if I had to quantify it I’d say this dead tone is maybe 5% brighter than the uncoated dead tone. Not noticeable enough for me to actually be happy about the sound, but noticeable enough for me to continue procrastinating on changing strings.
 
#13
Weird that DR would advertise that over their own coated strings...

Which reminds me, I just made the jump from Hi Beams to Dragon Skins on my bass. Exactly the same tension and flex has Hi Beams but with a coated feel and a less scooped sound thanks to the tamed brightness. Another winner I feel already!
 
#14
callofcthulhu said:
I’ve used it.

The instructions say to wipe on and wipe off to “clean,” wipe on and let sit 24 hours to “coat.”
I did the latter on a new set of Chromes (and a Rotosound 77 low B)
The result is that the strings go on sounding a week or two old.
Click to expand...

It would seem that the proper way to use it is to coat brand new strings BEFORE installing them on the bass or guitar. I can't think of any other way to apply it to the entire length of the string entirely around the circumference. IF there is an electrostatic (or whatever it's called) bond, and the liquid can get between the windings, then perhaps it can be of some benefit. PERSONALLY speaking, having used Elixir strings on some acoustics, I find that Elixirs provide about a 20% increase in longevity 6-8 wks vs 4-6 weeks over my preferred non-coated strings and other brands of coated strings offer no additional longevity.

While this thread is about polymer coating, I would like to point out that I personally use a product called Finger-Ease which reduces the friction on the strings, but also claims to increase longevity. I wipe this product on, (even though it comes in a spray can) and only apply it to the top of the strings where my fingers touch. As far as keeping the gunk out of the strings, other than keeping my hands clean, I will wipe down the strings from time to time, but now use an ultrasonic cleaner which seems to do a pretty good job.
 
#18
vindibona1 said:
As I'm putting new DR Sunbeam strings on my Jazz Bass I'm looking at the back of the individual string wrappers and notice they are putting ads on the backs... and one caught my eye.

In big letters it says "COAT YOUR OWN STRINGS with STRINGLIFE"!
I'm attaching a photo of the ad, but here is what the rest of it says;

"Stringlife is as effective in prolonging the useful life of strings (when applied to the entire length of the sttring) as factory coated strings. Players may coat their favorite set of bass, acoustic or electric strings to make them last longer.

Stringlife liquid polymer coating bonds to strings by causing the positive charge of electrons in your strings to attract to the negative charged polymer. This creates a process called electrovalent bonding."

It looks like all the stores have them. $10. Here is a link to one of many sources. DR String Life Liquid Polymer String Coating

Has anyone else heard of this product before? I have always felt abused when asked to pay almost double the price for a cheap coating on strings that I reckoned could be easily done with the right product. I really don't have a need for coated strings, but thought I'd share this anyway.

View attachment 3415683
Click to expand...

I don't really see any value add from coated strings. So I'll say there wasn't a need to pay up in the first place.
 

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