I think these are the worst strings I've ever used...

[backinit]

I am just kidding.

Seriously, avoid DR Red Devils (other colors as well?) like the plaque. Acoustically transparent my azz.....but that's not the real issue.

The coating was coming off the high E string before it was tuned to pitch. The B and the A soon followed suit.

Where the coating came off the plain strings have a unique roughness to them.

Also these don't hold tune worth a crap. The strings I put on before were fine, and the ones I have on now (after I ripped the DRs off) are fine as well.

I guess I'll stick with my cheap good strings.

[Bloozguy]

I think it's a very cool idea...I'd love to have red strings on my Monaco III and blue strings on my Mirage, but I have heard of nothing but trouble with the colored strings.

Anyone find some that are actually worth a darn?

[JohnnyB]

I think it's a very cool idea...I'd love to have red strings on my Monaco III and blue strings on my Mirage, but I have heard of nothing but trouble with the colored strings.

Anyone find some that are actually worth a darn?

I used to use nothing but Elixir 11-49 Polyweb strings on my Newport. Nothing lit up the Newport's tone and potential like those strings. They don't fray and flake very easily either, because it's a high-tech polyester woven material from the inventors of Gore-Tex. I only stopped because I had a drawer full of strings and I'm not playing guitar enough these days to spend the $11/set. They are worth it if you play regularly, however.

I also use Black Diamond Black Coated strings for bass guitar that are excellent in every way. They are a coated roundwound pure nickel wrap, so they have a big, full, warm sound, but are not woofy or muddy. They're definitely a premium string, as they typically sell in the range of TI's. The best price I've found for any Black Diamonds is at First Quality Music. One thing about the colored coated roundwounds in general (except, possibly for Elixir), is they they will wear through where you use a pick and generally where you fret. The fretting part is on the underside of the string and won't show up much. What they give in return is a more controlled sound, less finger noise, and less fret or (in the case of fretless) fingerboard wear. For fingerstyle players you get a roundwound sound without so much finger noise.

I also have a couple sets of strings from Strings By Aurora, a set of orange 45-105 bass strings for my orange ASAT bass, and a set of hot pink 10-46 guitar strings for a black 'n' silver swirl finished G&L Legacy. I've used the orange ones but not the guitar ones yet. I'll string 'em up soon (ha) and report. The orange bass strings are very well made and have a very modern sound, well-suited to slapping and popping. My tastes run more vintage with more emphasis on the fundamental note, so my preference runs to the Black Diamonds. Still, if you want a snappy, bright, coated string, the Aurora's are good and can be had cheaply on eBay, especially for a coated string. I got the bass strings for something like $12/set and the guitar strings for around $5.50. The same caveat regarding loss of coating at the picking area and where the frets hit still applies, but it doesn't affect playability or tone, and isn't really detectable much beyond 3-4 feet.

[Steve Haynie]

When I asked the local music store to order some of the DR strings that Geezer Butler uses I was warned that the black coating would come off on my fingers. They never got me those strings, either.

Elixer strings have been great on an electric guitar that I owned. As JohnnyB points out, the nylon coating does wear through eventually, but I never noticed tuning issues because of it. On an acoustic Elixer strings are nice. Not being an acoustic purist they are fine for me. There are probably a lot of arguments for and against coated strings among the tradtional acoustic players.

[jwhitcomb3]

I've used two sets of DR Extra Life Coated Black Beauties on acoustic guitars and have found the coating to be excellent and durable.

-Jonathan

[Guest JackButler]

I've played the DR Black Beauties since they debuted and never had an issue. Once with thier "Blues" string.. not the peacock blue string.. their Warren Haynes string.. I had a couple of g strings act funny.. I e-mailed the company and gave them the batch numbers off the sets and they sent me out entire sets to replace them all.

[backinit]

That's the other part, I emailed the company and never got a response.

Done.

[Bass Guy Dave]

Best/Brightest set of coated strings I'd ever used were a set of GHS coated bass strings (with a Red coating.)

I didn't particularly care for the color, but the strings weren't bad.

I've tried elixir Nano and Ply for guitar and bass, and Daddario EXP etc, can just was never that knocked out by any of the coateds for the $ for bass.

Acoustic guitar and the Elixir Nanos I throught were decent for a guitar that didn't get played much...

[Jeff R]

Haven't found a set of colored or especially wax-coated strings I can tolerate.

In the case of coated, want your strings to last longer? Keep a rag handy and wipe 'em clean when you're done, and be diligent about it. I'm the worst about doing it, but I concentrated on it for a while and tripled my string life.

In the case of colored strings, they remind me of those nylon strings on toy guitars at Wal-Mart I used to buy my kids years ago so they'd leave my shit alone, so I carry inherent bias.

Oh yeah, they don't hold whatever color, look like shit in 30 minutes of honest playing and they sound like shit in half that time.

Like I said, inherent bias