Hi, I came across this video whilst reseaching into the NYXL's and as an Elixir user wanted a comparrison. There are few things I know and some I have just looked into that hasn't been mentioned and so I thought I would share this knowledge of what I have found and experienced. . . be warned, there will be alot haha. I have used Elixir's for about the past 9-10 years, when I was converted whilst playing some acoustic guitars in a shop whilst at uni, the strings just seemed to bring the guitars in there to life (good move by the shop, even cheap guitars sounded fantastic). This only had me convert to acoustic Elixirs though, I thought that it wouldn't really make a difference on electrics and so held off for a couple of years (big mistake). Prior to that I was using Earnie Balls, which I probably would recommend if you didn't fancy the coating. I also used Rotosound for a few years, someone convinced me to use them with the bonus free hi e (thin plain steel) string. Honestly, I saw the error of my ways when I realized you needed that bonus e string, because they snapped constantly whilst just trying to stretch them in, I was constantly buying new packed (highly recommend avoiding imo). Now when it comes to the Elixirs, both acoustic and electric, I have only used the Nanoweb and cannot comment of the Polyweb nor the newer Optiweb. Look on their website and you will find the charts on which will suit you best based on feel, tone etc. Also with the acoustic guitars you have the choice of Phosphor Bronze or 80/20 Bronze, again check the website for details, Ive used both and their statement rings true, both do what they are supposed to and very well. The cost of the Elixir's are high, but when put next to uncoated strings you will save alot of money. Uncoated strings dull quickly, between the windings fill with dirt/greese/oils from the skin, the more this happens the slower your playing will be. When someone asks me to play and hand me a guitar that they have never changed the strings on and as soon as you start playing, all that dirt and crap gets transfered to your finger tips, as well as the corroding metals, you just cannot move your hand because your fingers are stuck its awful. This will also be happening to your guitar but you probably wont notice as much as its gradually building up rather than just being present to you, but trust me, normal string you will want to change once every 2 weeks to 1 month deppending on how much you play. The Elixir's coating prevents all of that build up of gunk over time and the corrosion and this is why they last longer. The coating is a very thin coat of polyurethane if I am not mistaken and Elixir was the one to invent this I believe. Now as I said, the Elixir's are very expensive, but you can easily get away with 6 months to a year before changing them. I havn't changed this last set in about 3 years (started up a business so I have no money nor time), Ok for me personally I am going to change them soon, but for alot of people they are perfectly fine, I could get months or even years more out of them realistically. So. . . One thing I did look into awhile back was D'Addario, as they also do coated strings and a friend of mine swears by them. They are slightly cheaper than Elixir too, so I considered them and did my research. (The coated D'Addario's btw are labled EXP) What I found was bias die hard fans for either side or in quite a few cases, many people saying that they prefer the EXP's over Elixir because they have a much brighter sound, but then I found a graph somewhere that shows you the difference between the two over time. This graph clarified that the EXP's were infact brighter than EXP's from new, but they soon quickly began to dull and the tonality changed lower than that of the Elixirs, which did dull a little over a long time but overall that tonality was barely anything compared to the EXP's, hence the reason I ended up staying with the Elixir's. Now when I saw the NYXL's I got excited, the advertising for them is great and it makes a hard sell, But they arn't coated. . . Once you use a coated string you wont go back, from the moment you put them on, the coating not only stops them getting build up of scum, preserve tonality, last longer etc, but your fingers just glide and your playing becomes so so much better, quicker and you enjoy playing so much more. Plus they don'y break, the claim of the NYXL is that it is srtonger, but it doesn't really matter to me, since using Elixirs 9 years ago, I have only broken 1 string whlist stretching a new string (yes I pulled it waaaay too hard, my bad) and maybe 1 whilst playing, I can't remember, but you will changed them before you get a chance to snap them trust me. That said, I have just visited the website to look into D'Addario strings and they do have many more options available; pure nickle, chromed stainless steel flats, half round. . . These could be interesting and worth trying. One that does stand out though is the one that sits halfway between bright and mellow which is the EXP coated nickle with NY steels, which I assume is the coated version of the ones featured in this video. According to D'Addario, they have strengthened the plain steels with a new wind (I assume at the ball end to prevent snapping), reformulated the nickle coating to make them more magnetic to give a better output (this sounds like it means volume as opposed to tonality), and uses high carbon steel cores in the wound strings (again for strength), couple all this with a coating, it could be worth investigating. But Im not 100%, some of their terminology seems like they have good marketing and not always completely corect. e.g. they refer to nickel as an alloy in the description for pure nickels, but nickel is not an alloy its an element, steel is an alloy made from iron and carbon. That might be an error but there is alot of other things that I was reading that I had to read several times to try to make sure I got it right or things Im still unclear of e.g. the high carbon steel, this is specified to be used for the cores of the wound strings, Im not sure whether this includes the steels as they are refered to as "Plain Steels" suggesting that maybe they are not? Either way, I think that you will find that both the EXP and the NYXL's will be brighter than Elixirs at first. To me that says if you are practising or gig, for the money, why not go for one of the D'Addario choices, personally I would always recommend the coated no matter what but thats up to you, you may not like them coated. If you are recording like me, I would opt for the Elixirs every time, the comparrison in tonal change over time is something that could become a massive problem if revisiting a track a month or so later and you didnt want to restring again. A couple of tips; As mentioned in the video, the coating does wear of where you strike with your pick over time, on the Elixirs, I havnt found this to affect the tone a great deal nor does it affect your playing because its not gathering dirt in the windings in the fretboard area. Also, check out for deals in several online shops, Elixirs especially are more affordable if you scout out the 3 pack offers. Roughly electrics cost around £10-£15 per pack, acoustic £15-£20 per pack, where the 3 packs usually costs £20-£25 and £25-£35 respectively, but shop around because it varies shop to shop (Amazon, Gak, PMT online). It tends to work out at buy 2 get 1 free roughly. Do note, you can buy single strings, but these usually cost nearly as much as a full pack (like £5-£10) which is just insane, just get the 3 pack. All of the sizes can be found of their website and most are offered in the different gauges and coatings, but it just deppends on which store has them in stock at the time, which changes regular, so keep checking. You honestly don't need to use fast fret or anything with coated strings, I personally remove a whole set at once, clean the fretboard with lemon oil, restring, then just keep repeating tune, stretch till they are ready. I noticed in this video, like I find at home on my guitars, the Elixirs need a bit more stretching in, if you listen to the comparrison between the 2 on the first chorus fx riff, the Elixir still has that new string buzzing sound, the D'Addario I noticed only a tiny bit once or twice (props to the NYXL's on that) Final thing, no matter what brand you buy, be careful where you get them from, if the price seems too good to be true then it probably IS too good to be true. Believe it or not, there are fakes of these brands out there, I for one have purchased a fake set of Elixirs from Ebay before. If you are not used to playing these strings you might not know any otherwise and when you find that they are no better than any ordinary string (because they are just ordinary strings - no coating) you could be fooled into thinking that these brands arnt worth the money, when in reality you have never used them. Things to check for is firstly the coating, coated strings are unbelievably smooth and dont feel like metal (because essentially its extremely thin plastic you are touching). The packaging is also a giveaway, dull printed colours of the box and string paper packets, things that seem odd compared to a real genuine pack (search one on Google if you dont have one at hand) the one I got went into a lot of detail so you can easily be fooled. Im always open to new things but one thing is for certain, I have struggled to budge from Elixir personally but I am interested in trying all these new concepts, such as the slinky cobalts, flatwounds etc. If anyone actually read all that I do hope that it was useful to you in some way and any questions please feel free to drop me a comment.

Excellent video and great performance! I completely agree with you about the Elixir Nanoweb and the D’addario NYXL! I used NYXL for more than 3 years and I always didn’t like much the top end and that excess in treble or presence so I decided to try different strings. I tried so many brands but when I put the Elixir Nanoweb 10-46 in my guitar I knew it that was it!☺️ The full rounded smooth sound of the nanoweb was what I was looking for! Plus a long life tone and they stay really well in tuning!(the NYXL are amazing about staying in tune too). To me was a gift and I never looked back( I prefer Nanoweb or optiweb) and I don’t have problems with my hands about corrosion ir anything like that…. Also I think they work great with all around types of music…killer tones!

Aloha from Hawaii! I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised at your review but especially loved your music & playing😎

I like your playing for its own sake. As for the comparison... I AGREE 100%! I've always liked the Elixir Nanowebs. The man at Guitar Center insisted that the D'Addario NYXL's were better. They're not better. They're rough. Why do they do that? Now I'm stuck with these NYXL's for a while. Thanks for making this video.

1:28👍 5:00 👎 7:00👎 9:30 🤘🏻

I have the same problem as you. I do want to play in Drop C and AGCFAD tunings and Elixir doesnt have alot of choices for string gauges. I use nanoweb 10s, I have a Les Paul style guitar with a 24.75" scale length. Are 10-52s sufficient for these tunings? Bands that play in the tunings I described above use 11-56s.

Nice review. In the future it would be better to not have random guitar playing between the talking coz I'm not even sure what strings you're demonstrating when you're playing.

Elixirs sound too metallic