Coated Strings (cleartones) With Variax?

[clay-man]

Anyone try coated strings with the Variax? I'm tired of my strings dying after a few days of use so I'm trying coated strings.

 

My concern is that coated strings are apparently louder than normal strings, and I'm wondering if that's going to mess with the response of the piezos. Hopefully if it does I can just lower the string volumes.

[TheRealZap]

I used the elixir polyweb's exclusively with my 600. loved them.

[clay-man]

I used the elixir polyweb's exclusively with my 600. loved them.

 

That was my other choice, but I'm hoping my cleartones experience will be the positive and not the negative from the mixed reviews. 

[arislaf]

I used elixir nanonweb. Great tone! You should try it!

[Charlie_Watt]

I have used elixir's on my 500 since I got it.  They reduce the string noise you get sliding your fingers up the fretboard and the strings last longer.  I am lazy when it comes to changing strings so that's a good thing.

[BigChas52]

I used DR Coated on my 300.  It cut the plink a bit, lasted long, and sounded fine.

[TheRealZap]

sounds like the consensus is to try a pair... they indeed work, but it's subjective as to whether or not you like them.

I liked them on mine, but i'm play more clean crunch type sounds than metal/higain stuff... so that may factor in.

[Charlie_Watt]

I use Elixirs on my Taylor Acoustic and on most of my Electrics.  They may not start out as bright as some others but they don't degrade as quickly either.  I thought my Variax 500 was a bit too bright with other strings and I got a lot of string noise when moving my hands.  The Elixirs are a bit warmer and the coating feels nice too.  I have not tried the Cleartone strings.

[clay-man]

Got my cleartones today. They sound great on the Variax. Switched back from 11's to 10's because I think the 6th string was too big to fit in the piezo and cut the volume down a bit (which I fought by maxing out the global volume on that string).

 

So far they sound great. Sound 100 times better than the old strings.

 

The thing with Cleartone strings is that instead of a polymer coating, it has this weird microthin bonding material so it doesn't deaden the tone or feel slippery.

 

The only problem I've seen about them is people complaining they didn't last long at all, but that's just a few reviews that I've seen. I'm hoping that they last really long like they should, otherwise I might try Elixir polywebs instead.

[clay-man]

Sadly after a day under a week of use, there is already signs of the plain strings rusting (yes they're coated too)

Sounds great still, but if they're rusting then obviously they will die soon.

 

Cleartones says I should wipe my strings and say that the acidity of my sweat can be eating through the coating. Kind of defeats the purpose. I suppose cleartones are more for people with milder acidity.

 

I might switch to Elixirs after this.

[clay-man]

I used the elixir polyweb's exclusively with my 600. loved them.

 

Replaced my cleartones with Elixir Polywebs today. 

Sounds absolutely great.

 

Been playing all day and absolutely 0% signs of rust or anything like that so far even on the plain strings.

 

I can agree on how some people say it's a bit warmer than a new set of uncoated strings, but it's very very very subtle.

 

While the cleartones sounded bright still, it sounded dead at the same time compared to when I first got it. The harmonic richness of new stings was gone from the Cleartones about 2-3 days after I got it. It was usable but definitely not new sounding.

 

In the end, Cleartones has something going, but is incredibly disappointing especially for people who NEED coated strings if they have acidic sweaty hands and don't want to have a dead tone after 3 days to a week.

Usable, but the coating comes off instantly and rusts fast.