A month ago I went to the local store to buy Ernie Ball Cobalt strings. They wer not in stock, I had to wait another month they said. So I ended up with regular EB slinkeys. Unfortunately I got the wrong ones, they were too thin and a bit too bright for my taste. This weekend I went back to get the Cobalts. Still not in stock, at least now they had reached the distributor in Sweden. Anyway, one of the salesmen talked me into buying Elixir strings with "nanoweb" Gore coating. Yes, Gore as in Gore Tex, not the ex vice president

I didn't have time to put them on right away, but I googled them and got to read a surprising amount of reviews by people who hated them, very few who liked them. One guy even called them sticky condom strings that took away the sensual feeling of playing guitar A lot of reports of sticky strings, strings sounding dead out of the box and strings breaking. It also seemed that the coating and/or manufacturing process was changed a few years ago and reports after that were slightly more cheerful. Not feeling all too happy with myself I decided to give them a go and cut the old ones off.

Boy what a difference! Tone wise it might be my imagination, but I think they are a bit warmer and... fuller? They are definatley a lot smoother. The fingers slide with very little resistance. Usually there's quite a lot of noice from my fingers on the strings but not with these ones. I can't even hear the slide, I use a chromed copper slide. My fingers sweat quite a lot when I play and the strings usually get dirty fast. The coating is supposed to prevent the strings from absorbing all the grime. I havn't had them long enough to know if it's true yet, but I imagine I'll find out.

I was expecting the worst but ended up surprised and happy

Price was twice that of regular EB Slinkeys and according to the sales guy they were on sale. Normal price would have been 200 SEK, around $28 for a set, I payed $18.