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October 2006
Posts: 51
Location: Arizona | My Elite-T needed strings, so I decided to try the Elixer Nanoweb light acoustic strings.
First impression: they're wonderful. I love the sound, they play nicely.
Subsequent impression: I went through three G-strings in about six hours of play, got about two hours on each. Two broke at the nut, one broke at the bridge. Since they don't sell individual strings loose, that means I got about six hours out of three $14 sets of strings. Bleah...dat sucks.
So I broke out the digital microscope to see what I could see.
The two ends of the last fracture at 60x:
The windings on the core, just for reference. Of note is the witness marks on the core from the winding:
This is the core fracture at 200x. I noticed that the witness mark for the winding deviated just before the fracture, which makes me wonder whether something on the nut pinched it and made the winding move?
I know these aren't the usual string questions, and I know most folks here aren't mechanical engineers, but I'm wondering whether anybody has any experience with this sort of thing.
I liked the Elixir strings, but I ain't gonna buy another set if there's some sort of flaw that makes them not like my Elite. I just put a fresh set of EXPs on there (the last set lasted a looong time, which is why they were due for change).
Thoughts? Opinions? Ridicule? Derision? I can't imagine this is normal. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | call elixir tell them... betcha they make good....
Sounds like a bad batch. |
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November 2007
Posts: 152
Location: Maple Shade, NJ. | You know, the same thing was happening to me with Elixers, so I went back to CF Martin lights. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | BTW...
This post HAS t'be in the "OFC GuitarGeek Top 5"
Don't get me wrong, I applaud it but... let's call a spade a spade... |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | fyi - elixir strings are available individually if you ever need to buy them that way. i always purchase extra 9's and 10's for the G on my 12 stringer. i have been getting mine from www.stringsandbeyond.com lately. on the left side on their webpage, click "single strings". |
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February 2008
Posts: 40
Location: AKRON, OHIO | HI!
Was the gauge the same on both types of strings? --------the elixers.... or the EXP's |
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October 2005
Posts: 4071
Location: Utah | Many moons ago I used to do failure analysis on electronics. What we need is a comparison of several strings, and some end views of the fractures.
Just what little you've posted looks like there was some kind of nick or damage that became a stress riser, allowing a failure to occur. The strange thing is that it was at the nut or bridge, which kinda makes me wonder about something on your guitar. But, it would be strange to be at both places.
Could you have somehow crimped, kinked, or bent the string as it was being installed? Do you press on the string over the bridge or nut as you are installing it?
Failures can be of several kinds. One is a ductile or tensile failure. Basically, the string is stretched beyond it's strength limit and it just breaks. Like pulling a rubber band until it breaks. Another kind of failure is a fatigue failure, which is like when you bend a paper clip back and forth a dozen times and it breaks. If you kinked or nicked the string, you can introduce a small crack. Then as the string vibrates or is stressed, the crack can propagate. If you look end on you may see layers or waves, which would be successive movement of the crack.
But probably it makes a lot more sense to look at the nut and the bridge to see if there is something there. Is the nut slot too narrow, pinching the string? Is there a burr on the nut that might have stressed the string unevenly? Did the new string come with a nick or kink? I've had that happen, where a brand new string was kinked at the factory during packaging.
One thing I learned in F/A was that problems are usually not very sophisticated or technical. It's much more likely to be someone sneezing on the circuit board, causing corrosion, rather than some obscure physics problem. It doesn't seem likely that those strings have a metallurgical problem. It's more likely to be something on your guitar, or the way you install them, or some damage done at the factory. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | These are all I buy for my 6 & 12ers acoustics. Never had an issue with 'em.
I would carefully check the nut first. Also check with the manufacturer for assistance as recommended above.
Keep us posted... |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by 2ifbyC:
These are all I buy for my 6 & 12ers acoustics. Never had an issue with 'em.
I would carefully check the nut first. Also check with the manufacturer for assistance as recommended above.
Also check to see if the sets had the same 'lot/batch number'.
Keep us posted... ETA: SigFly's post was a touch quicker than mine. I respectfully relinquish the floor to SF. |
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February 2008
Posts: 747
| I went through four Carter fuel pumps on my race car in about 4 weeks; one of them didn't last 2 hours; then I switched to Holley and had no more problems - I'd suggest trying different strings; I don't remember the last time I broke a string on an acoustic guitar..lol |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| I have been using these exclusively now. They are not cheap but I find they are cost effective considering how often I change strings when gigging. I had four high E strings unwind at the bridge. Damdest thing too, but all I did was tell Elixir and ask that they replace exactly what I was out. They replaced my 4 high E strings and gave me a new set as well. Never had trouble again.
Randy |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Wow, those are some pics. |
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April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | I know absolutely nothing about the topic at hand (I only have problems with my classical strings becoming unravelled at the bridge end), but it's the most interesting one I've read in a long time. Inquiring minds do want to know.......
--Karen |
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October 2007
Posts: 2711
Location: Vernon CT | I've been using Elixir lights for 6 years now and have never had one break on me. IMHO, they are the best string available. As mentioned above, contact Elixir and see if they will do something for you. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Digital Microscope.
cool. |
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June 2007
Posts: 3084
Location: Brisbane Australia | Hey Joe,
Sounds like you race your car more than you play guitar
AJ :D :D |
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Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 51
Location: Arizona | Thanks much for the advice on calling Elixir. They're sending me a replacement set plus a few G-strings.
They're also interested in my uber-nerd microscope pics, so I'm sending the lot along to them, and sending the last broken string back once their replacements arrive.
Also, I didn't realize that Elixir was part of WLGore. I knew Gore made the coating, but apparently Elixir = Gore (duh, there's a Gore logo on the box). I just never made the connection before.
BTW, I have a race car, too. ;) |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I can think of a bunch of ways to use that micro camera device. Wished I had one back in 8th grade. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Cool.
Let us know if anything more comes of it all... |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | Originally posted by ProfessorBB:
I can think of a bunch of ways to use that micro camera device. Wished I had one back in 8th grade. after reading that resurrected post about paul t, i'll bet he would like one of those cameras too... :D |
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String failure question.