« Not my cup of tea; but I can tell it's a damn fine cup of tea »

I recently had a chance to try out some Elixir Nanowebs (14202 - Light gauge .045-.130) and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised!

These are actually the first coated strings outside of tapewounds that I've tried, but I have heard from numerous folks over the years that coated strings are simply a novelty, don't sound as good as an uncoated string, and only give a very slightly longer playable life. Gotta say I no longer believe those folks. Numbers ratings are mostly way subjective to what each person prefers, so here's a summary of my thoughts now that I've had a chance to really put these strings through the wringer.

Tone

• When I first put these strings on my Moser Bastard Vi, I immediately noticed that they were very crisp, bright, and rich. After playing them for a few solid hours, the initial brightness did very slightly wear off as the strings broke in, but the tone just evened out a little bit and then stuck with the same nice and bright tone since that point a few weeks ago until now, with many hours on them in between.
• They aren't the very brightest strings I've used, but are about as bright as any other quality round wound and hold at that same level better than most.
• Definitely far lower string noise that normal roundwounds.

Feel

• Part of the objection that many have to coated strings is that they just don't feel right and just slide around everywhere. I was definitely surprised how much like uncoated these strings feel. I would say the initial impression (when my hands were dry was that they just felt like they were polished or something, but not like the noodly mess that I expected.
• That said, if your hands sweat as much as mine do, they do indeed get rather slippery, especially i. THAT said, my hands sweat tons, but don't corrode strings like some other sweaty guys do. If your sweat is on the more corrosive side, the slipperiness may be worth the protection.

Longevity

• After a month of heavy use, they are still keepin' on keepin' on. As mentioned in the Tone section, the tone has held beautifully compared to many traditional round wounds. While they have not maintained the same brightness as when they were fresh, it has definitely decreased far less that most others.
• While I generally don't use a pick very often, I did give these strings a good bit of time with picks ranging from Wedgie rubber picks and super thin and floppy picks to a 3mm stubby and even a big stainless steel triangle pick. Through all of this, the coating seems to have held up perfectly. To be fair, I certainly didn't put in the kind of time that a dedicated picker would, so I can't attest to how they stand up to heavy and continuous picking, but I feel that they did well for the amount that I did put them through.

Appearance

• They look like a standard set of strings. They aren't super glossy and reflective and they definitely haven't gotten cloudy or yellowed or anything in the month that I've been using them.
• Personally, I kinda like having a nice looking silk on my strings, but then again you could also run into the color clashing with your bass or your strap or whatever, so it's not like it's any sort of negative that these are naked. Naked is definitely more neutral and versatile, but sometimes fancy is nice too.

Overall

• If you like your strings to keep as close to that fresh brightness as possible and your hands don't sweat a whole lot, I think these are going to knock it out of the park for you.
• For me personally, I don't foresee using them regularly as I've got very sweaty hands that don't corrode strings and my preference in tone and feel is more for quarter round strings. I could certainly see using these strings in certain situations, though
• All in all, not my cup of tea; but I can tell it's a damn fine cup of tea.

Here are some pictures of them on my Moser:
(Sorry for the only slightly above potato quality. Turnip maybe?)