Elixir strings.. dodgy?

[Marky L]

These have to be all shades of dodgy.. don't they?

 

Ebay Elixir

 

And these too?

 

More Ebay Elixir

 

How can you tell at first glance? Do they use a pic of some genuine strings and then ship wonky ones?

[Newfoundfreedom]

Looking at the feedback there's a couple of negatives suggesting they were sold a lemon, but on the whole the feedback is almost all positive. So either they're genuine, or the vast majority of buyers have no idea what real Elixirs should be like. 

[NancyJohnson]

On 04/01/2023 at 11:25, Marky L said:

These have to be all shades of dodgy.. don't they?

 

Ebay Elixir

 

And these too?

 

More Ebay Elixir

 

How can you tell at first glance? Do they use a pic of some genuine strings and then ship wonky ones?

 

On the face of it the boxes are almost certainly genuine on both adverts.  The Cactus In The Window seller, just seems to sell tat, but they may have just had a job lot of Elixir Strings and they've sold a few sets.  As the honourable member for Bulgaria said, they could have sold the buyer duds and they don't know what they're buying.

 

Maestro Music only seem to deal in Elixirs on eBay.  Again it's feasible that the couple of negatives ('My E-string broke after two months, so they must be fake') are just people chancing it for refunds.

 

Personally, I'd spend a tenner extra and go to the Elixir store on Amazon.  Elixir will supply direct into Amazon (who act as middleman and take a margin on each sale).  Possibly safer.  

[prowla]

"The Cactus In The Window" - sounds like the title of a whodunnit...

[Woodinblack]

They seem reasonably genuine, although I would have thought if you knew the strings it would be easy to work out and get a refund if they weren't.

 

[Steff]

I’ve bought strings from the second link and they were fake. I have been using elixir exclusively for 20 years and I can spot a fake straight from taking it out of the box. They didn’t have coating, were extremely soft and rubbery and generally felt like a £10 worth wish.com copy. When I contacted the seller, they were surprised apparently.  
 

What is the Bulgarian connection out of curiosity? I’m Bulgarian too but living in London for many years. 

[NancyJohnson]

7 hours ago, Steff said:

I’ve bought strings from the second link and they were fake. I have been using elixir exclusively for 20 years and I can spot a fake straight from taking it out of the box. They didn’t have coating, were extremely soft and rubbery and generally felt like a £10 worth wish.com copy. When I contacted the seller, they were surprised apparently.  
 

What is the Bulgarian connection out of curiosity? I’m Bulgarian too but living in London for many years. 

 

With all due respect, the only thing I'd identify from Elixir strings is the lack of wrap, gold coloured ball-ends and a slight light grey/titanium discolouration from the coating process.  We all know that there's a degree of inconsistency in string manufacture, everyone experiences duds... I'd never claim strings were ever soft and rubbery.

 

Just consider for one moment the whole fakery process.  The box.  The strings.  The paper envelope the strings are in.  Free postage.  It's an awful lot of effort to fake something for a few £££ gain. 

[prowla]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

With all due respect, the only thing I'd identify from Elixir strings is the lack of wrap, gold coloured ball-ends and a slight light grey/titanium discolouration from the coating process.  We all know that there's a degree of inconsistency in string manufacture, everyone experiences duds... I'd never claim strings were ever soft and rubbery.

 

Just consider for one moment the whole fakery process.  The box.  The strings.  The paper envelope the strings are in.  Free postage.  It's an awful lot of effort to fake something for a few £££ gain. 

I'm wondering if these are genuine...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003312170216.html

[Woodinblack]

11 minutes ago, prowla said:

I'm wondering if these are genuine...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003312170216.html

 

According to the reviews, they do not have enough fenderov sound on them. Which is obviously not good.

[NancyJohnson]

10 hours ago, Steff said:

What is the Bulgarian connection out of curiosity?

 

[Mudpup]

On 04/01/2023 at 11:25, Marky L said:

These have to be all shades of dodgy.. don't they?

 

Ebay Elixir

 

And these too?

 

More Ebay Elixir

 

How can you tell at first glance? Do they use a pic of some genuine strings and then ship wonky ones?

The price pretty much confirms they're dodgy. The smarter fakers would have them up at £35 or £40 so it's a tiny bit cheaper than the price all the other (legit) retailers are selling them for. That disguises them a bit. 

 

If the major retailers are selling at £45 on average then they must be paying a touch more than half that to the UK distributor. So let's say they're paying about £25 and then adding the VAT so it's £30 effectively. They'll need to be looking at a sensible profit for the business to be viable so they really have to sell at a minimum of £35/40 per set. And this will be for the big guys who can buy in bulk or have good discounts set up with their suppliers.

 

Here's the same scenario....say a Fender Mexican P Bass retails normally for £700. Everyone is selling them for that price unless they're having a sale in which case they may be £550. Apart from one eBay shop that also  sells doorbells and surgical masks doing them for £375 and claiming to have plenty in stock. Any alarm bells there?

 

You can buy cheap strings from China for a couple of quid and spend the same on some good packaging. Maybe you've bought 500 sets and it'll cost you £6 per set in total. So an investment of £3000 will bring in £11,250. Leaving you a profit of +£8000. That's why they would bother faking the proper box. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Mudpup

[Newfoundfreedom]

11 hours ago, Steff said:

 

What is the Bulgarian connection out of curiosity? I’m Bulgarian too but living in London for many years. 

 

I live in Bulgaria. Been here for over 7 years now. 😉

[Steff]

5 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

With all due respect, the only thing I'd identify from Elixir strings is the lack of wrap, gold coloured ball-ends and a slight light grey/titanium discolouration from the coating process.  We all know that there's a degree of inconsistency in string manufacture, everyone experiences duds... I'd never claim strings were ever soft and rubbery.

 

Just consider for one moment the whole fakery process.  The box.  The strings.  The paper envelope the strings are in.  Free postage.  It's an awful lot of effort to fake something for a few £££ gain. 

 

With all due respect - elixir nickels have gold ball ends. The stainless steels have (had cos they’re not making them anymore) silver ball ends. 
 

Every string has a certain stiffness to it and I’m very used to that of the elixirs. The ones I got from the link felt like they’re made from softer metal and were bending and generally feeling a lot more flexible and yes - rubbery. 
 

You can get tons of bass strings made in the far east for around the 10-15 quid mark and that’s exactly how they feel like - soft and rubbery. And it’ll make a pretty good profit if you put them in an expensive brand box and sold them for 3x the cost. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Steff

[Ralf1e]

I bought some Elixir strings several years ago now from wish. They cost about £11.50 a set. I have to admit I had never heard of them so gave them a try anyway.

First opening of the packet they felt like fret saw blades and very stiff as well. Never put them on anything after giving them a quick try on a bass. Openened another packet recently same batch and they feel different to how I remember the first packet. Still feel vey stiff.

Bottom line. I don't like them.

I use Daddario's for all but my Fretless basses.

I believe Elixir are a brand of a USA company.

Do they claim to make them in the USA or are they just taking the cheap manufacturing route and having them made in China? It stands to reason you would not make strings in the USA and ship them to China to then sell them and ship them back across the face of the earth to the USA and Europe.

So if they are Made in China it might come as no surprise if some large quantities are finding their way out of the back door and into the marketplace.

I assume the factory makes other brands as well so the lesser brands might also find themselves packed in Elixir boxes.

Either way I still don't like them. For me what I have seen of them has given them a bad rap.

Just to qualify that. I have a friend who uses nothing else.

He pays top money for them and gigs regularly in North London. I fail to see how they make his bass sound any better than anything else he used before.

Fakes destroy collectibles!

Just my feelings about them.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Ralf1e

[Newfoundfreedom]

1 hour ago, Ralf1e said:

I bought some Elixir strings several years ago now from wish. They cost about £11.50 a set. I have to admit I had never heard of them so gave them a try anyway.

First opening of the packet they felt like fret saw blades and very stiff as well. Never put them on anything after giving them a quick try on a bass. Openened another packet recently same batch and they feel different to how I remember the first packet. Still feel vey stiff.

Bottom line. I don't like them.

I use Daddario's for all but my Fretless basses.

I believe Elixir are a brand of a USA company.

Do they claim to make them in the USA or are they just taking the cheap manufacturing route and having them made in China? It stands to reason you would not make strings in the USA and ship them to China to then sell them and ship them back across the face of the earth to the USA and Europe.

So if they are Made in China it might come as no surprise if some large quantities are finding their way out of the back door and into the marketplace.

I assume the factory makes other brands as well so the lesser brands might also find themselves packed in Elixir boxes.

Either way I still don't like them. For me what I have seen of them has given them a bad rap.

Just to qualify that. I have a friend who uses nothing else.

He pays top money for them and gigs regularly in North London. I fail to see how they make his bass sound any better than anything else he used before.

Fakes destroy collectibles!

Just my feelings about them.

 

It's not about the sound so much as the feel and longevity. A real set of Elixirs will last 5 times longer than uncoated strings and your fingers will thank you for it. 

[ped]

Elixirs are my favourite round wound strings in terms of sound, feel and longevity. A set from a proper retailer isn’t cheap but they last years for me. The old packaging used to be faked quite a bit but the more recent sleeve has a hologram seal which to my knowledge hasn’t been faked yet. A clear way to tell us to see if you can spot the coating when the string is bent at a sharp 90 degree angle for example at the tuner. It should be visible where the windings are pulled apart slightly. 
 

To my knowledge the strings are manufactured entirely in the USA. The coating is applied by Gore (as in Gore tex) in a factory which also carries out military contracts and as such I was never able to blag a visit to see them being made (that’s what they told me anyway!)

 

Cheers

ped

[Ralf1e]

1 hour ago, ped said:

Elixirs are my favourite round wound strings in terms of sound, feel and longevity. A set from a proper retailer isn’t cheap but they last years for me. The old packaging used to be faked quite a bit but the more recent sleeve has a hologram seal which to my knowledge hasn’t been faked yet. A clear way to tell us to see if you can spot the coating when the string is bent at a sharp 90 degree angle for example at the tuner. It should be visible where the windings are pulled apart slightly. 
 

To my knowledge the strings are manufactured entirely in the USA. The coating is applied by Gore (as in Gore tex) in a factory which also carries out military contracts and as such I was never able to blag a visit to see them being made (that’s what they told me anyway!)

 

Cheers

ped

Thank you so much that clears up my question about them and the query about them getting shipped from China. All the fraction of the real price strings have to be fake.

I did wonder when I first saw them why the Nano coating appeared to be invisible. Your answer explains a great deal.😀

[ped]

35 minutes ago, Ralf1e said:

Thank you so much that clears up my question about them and the query about them getting shipped from China. All the fraction of the real price strings have to be fake.

I did wonder when I first saw them why the Nano coating appeared to be invisible. Your answer explains a great deal.😀

 

No problem - Elixir have patented the method of coating the string AFTER it's wound, to prevent particles getting in between the windings. Other companies tend to coat the outer wrap before winding, which doesn't work as well IMO, although I'm sure some have infringed Elixir's patent which perhaps only covers certain territories.

 

I have a pic somewhere showing the difference between fake and real, I'll see if I can find them.

[ped]

This thread here

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/457555-did-i-just-get-fake-elixir-nanowebs-please-help-check/#comment-4617638

 

[Dazed]

Has anyone seen a fake set of Elixirs with the later packaging recently? Just curious if there’s anyway of checking without opening the packaging.
I’m going to look at some later from marketplace and they are unopened - I imagine the seller won’t want me to open them to check the strings themselves. 

[Dazed]

Photos of the packaging. I can’t tell if that’s the proper holographic sticker 

 

[Mudpup]

How much did you pay? That's probably the biggest tell tale. The smart scammers just do them a couple of quid cheaper than RRP, the dumber ones do them for £20

[Dazed]

Haven’t paid anything yet.

They’ve had them advertised on marketplace a couple of months, stated at £30 and dropped them to £25. Only a single set, the sellers other adverts are your usual random marketplace items. They had sold a set Elixir acoustic guitar strings and some musical equipment. So could be genuine. 
 

Isn’t that far from where I am so I thought I’d whizz over there and see if I could tell if they were fakes or genuine. 

[Dazed]

Hmmmm the sellers messaged me to say the sticker isn’t a hologram. Is that confirmation they are fakes?

Were the stickers always holograms?

 

Just had a look at an unused 5 string set I bought from here years ago and haven’t got around to fitting and it has the older packaging before the stickers. Looking at the strings I can’t see the nano web either. 

[Dazed]

Using the zoom on the phone I think I can see where the webbing starts on my 5 string set.