Sore fingers!

Which strings go on you first. The wound strings are coated with the polymer, the plain strings are the same as uncoated strings. I got this info straight from Elixir. IMHO If your unwound strings go dead or rust first, there is no reason to pay extra for the Elixir coating on the wound strings.

Notes

Sounds like some sort of reaction you are having with the metal. I'd switch back to what worked.

I had sore fingertips for years until someone mentioned that maple necks cause their fingers to get sore?? Never occurred to me that that could be it. I switched to rosewood and sure enough - no more soreness. I don't really get why but the materials certainly can and do have an effect on different skin make ups.

The skin absorbs a lot more than it seems.

The maple neck thing could be the maple sap - I know people that have a reaction to other kinds of wood. Here in Florida there is a tree called Brazilian Pepper or Florida Holly, and some people are so reactive with it that they can't even get too close. On the other hand, it could be the chemicals put on the maple neck.

I've avoided coated strings myself, because I don't know what they coat them with, and how it will affect me in the long term.

I learned my lesson with sax reeds. I ordered a box of plastic covered reeds. Since I play sax, wind synth, guitar, flute and sometimes keys on state, sax reeds dry out and when I start playing them again, then can warp as the re-wet. The Plasticover reeds solve this problem.

From decades of playing sax, I have the habit of putting the reed on my tongue while I assemble the sax and apply cork grease if necessary. This wets the reed. The Plasticover reeds don't need this, but as a force of habit, sometimes I did it anyway. Then I realized it made my tongue a little numb.

That started me thinking, why do I need to be absorbing these extra chemicals? What potential harm may they be doing? Do I want to volunteer to be the lab rat?

When I asked what was on the strings, Elixir said a polymer, but they wouldn't tell me what it is, and then they told me it wasn't on the unwound strings anyway. That sealed the deal for me as unwound strings go dead on me way before the wound ones.

Of course, YMMV

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