Elixirs v's Dean Markley Blue Steels, long term test

[Phil Starr]

In March 2015 I started a long term test comparing the sound and longevity of these two strings by fitting a brand new set of each on my two basses determined not to change them until I felt the sound was beyond acceptable. Here's a post from an earlier thread.
[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Well I fitted a set of Elixirs on my P, a birthday present in March, I also fitted a set of Dean Markleys (also long lasting/expensive strings) on my J. I've probably done 15-20 gigs since then and practice about an hour a day. To be fair I do most of my practice on the J esp since I fitted a J-Retro [/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] and most of the gigs with the P. I use a standard two finger picking style and never use a pick. Both sets still sound good, they sounded similar when I first set them up allowing for the different basses they are on, and I preferred the sound of the Dean Markleys at first as they were slightly more sparkly sounding. I think I'd have to say the Elixirs sound slightly better to my ears now so it looks like a win for the Elixirs in terms of longevity, though the differences are subtle and I doubt anyone else in the band would notice. Both sets are still plenty good enough to gig with.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Not very scientific because of the two basses used and the J-Retro upgrade of the passive J with the Markleys which changed the way the whole set up sounds for the better.[/font][/color]


[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]To give some context I moved from Rotosounds to Markleys because I was replacing the Roto's after 3-4 months as their sound died. The Markleys last me about a year so at double the price they work out cheaper in the long run. The Elixirs are going to have to make 18 months to be worthwhile. I don't like new Roto's but love the sound they reach a few weeks old. [/font][/color][/quote]

Well 18 months in I feel I need to improve the sound of one of the basses as the sound is going off, to my ears, and the winners are... Dean Markley. The Elixirs are just starting to have a marked imbalance between the E and A strings and the D and G with the upper strings being a little louder but slightly thinner sounding, not sounding 'nice' The Blue Steels still sound great on the J bass.

To be fair this isn't a completely scientific test as the strings are are on different basses and the sample size is one. The elixirs were on my gigging bass with my rock covers band until we split and since then I've used the blue steels more with my semi acoustic duo but I think they've served similar amounts of hours played. The Elixirs did well lasting 18 months without needing replacement and they are probably still OK if I wasn't being fussy, the Dean Markleys sound remarkably fresh. I'll be putting Blue Steels on the P bass soon.

Here's the original thread http://basschat.co.uk/topic/264767-elixir-strings-user-feedback/page__st__30