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Does anyone know of a good source for Elixir Strings? I know D'Addario is a sponsor and while many will prefer other strings, Elixir seems to be the string most my customers prefer.
They don't sell directly to small builders....
Does anyone know of a good source? Or maybe we can do a group buy?

thanks,

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

juststrings.com I use DR's Rare phosphors most of the time now but I use to use the Elixir nanoweb and polyweb custom lights. It has been a while but I believe 2 years ago I was giving $9.50 a set in a quantity of 24 per order I am sure it is more like $11.00 now. I love the tone just got tired of messing with the coating frays

Juststrings.com has been a good supplier to me.

David Collins had another source but I forgot the name - perhaps he will see this.

Stringsbymail also has them, and they have a fixed $4.00 shipping deal regardless of order size. Their prices are competitive with Juststrings, maybe even $.05 cheaper. i.e., $11.95 instead of $12.00.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Musicians Friend has them on sale for $11.04 right now.

Peter, If you haven't tried them yet I recommend the Elixir PB's. I love them!

I use Strings By Mail. Never been a big Elixer fan at all though. I've never figured out what they're doing differently, if something in their coating process is messing with the temper of the core or what, but they break way way easier than other strings. The G strings especially, you are lucky if you can go through three cycles of tuning with them. After you've loosened them twice, they seem to break at the third tuning like clockwork, while I've never had another brand of strings do this. The Elixer polywebs seemed to do this with uncanny consistency, and the nanowebs were almost as bad.

I don't work with them much anymore, so perhaps they've solved the problems, but I've never been motivated to go back and find out. I've never tried their phosphor bronze either, so I can't say whether they've ever had the breakage problem or not. They seem to be getting good revues for tone though.

Metal prices alone have forced a lot of manufacturers to finally start raising their prices, but they've been static for way longer than reasonable anyway. So if they haven't raised prices lately, I'm sure they will soon.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

The breakage problem has been solved, for the most part. I haven't broken one in roughly 2 years or so. as a Elixir dealer, I saw a definite correlation in breakage to certain batches; one box would have each 3rd string break, while the next box would see none break. Frustrating, for sure, and I begged them to use a batch coding system of some sort so we(dealers) could get back to them, so they could go back to their own string suppliers(Gore only coats and packages the strings, they don't make them) and find where the problem lay. But alas, what do I know.

It's been a good while since anyone's complained of a premature breakage issue. Old age breakage, yes, but not premature.

They're a Godsend.

double post....

That's good to hear. I did have a set last week that surprised me by staying intact after having to pull the saddle 3 times, so I was wondering if they'd figured it out. It's been about 3 years since I've used them much, so I wasn't sure.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I'd still not use them when doing a setup, though. That's what the J-16/J-17 are for!

I'll have to give them a try again. When they first came out I tried them but didn't like the tone they produced and they did break rather quickly.

Now one thing I'm wondering is if they will still sound the same on a cedar topped guitar. Of course cedar topped guitars are generally known for a smoother, mellower tone and coupled with the coated strings, that mellow tone just was more accentuated (to my poor ears anyway).

I've not heard them on a spruce topped guitar so maybe that's the difference.

Anyone else sense they make a mellow cedar top guitar even more mellow?

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I've been through 3 sets of the 80/20 Elixir Nanoweb custom lights on my Banjola in the last 8 months and haven't noticed any breakage problems. So my guess is that they fixed the issues. These strings sound particularly good on this instrument for some reason, and they last about 3-4 months of daily wear. So I'm happy with them.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

I've never had a breakage issue with Elixir Nano/Poly strings and I've used them for at least 7 years. I now only use the Nanoweb Phospor Bronze Light-Medium. I've also been getting mine from http://www.juststrings.com/ . Mario, can we purchase through you?

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA