Couple questions on coated strings.

[ihocky2]

It’s been a few years that life got in the way of my building and playing, but am starting back at both again. I don’t get to play everyday, sometimes not every week, my strings seem to corrode pretty quickly from just sitting, will coated strings help extend their life.

Being double the cost of regular strings, should I expect double the life or more?

With so many brands offering coatings now, are any better than others?

i don’t gig, I don’t record, right now it’s just building my chops back up so tone is not my highest priority. Feel, playability, and string life are more important right now.

[ADFinlayson]

Coated strings won't corrode as quickly and they will always sound brighter for longer, a wipe with some fast fret every now and again will also help to prevent corrosion and extend the life of your strings.

I always used to swear by Ernie Ball coated Slinkies, now I just used their bog standard power slinkies and give the fretboard a wipe with fast fret once a week after rehearsal - That's the most cost effective way (I find) to string my guitars.

[mistermikev]

i have super corrosive fingers... what's worse I have a lot of guitars.  I've found that as long as I keep a cotton rag lying round and white the strings immediately after playing I can extend the life quite a bit - 4-6wks.  However, they start to loose their snap at about 4 wks anyway. 

fast fret seems to work nice for cleaning them off when they have corrosion... and since i have a lot of guitars - unless I'm recording - I let the strings get a bit older and just use that to give them a nice 'slippery' feel again.

my experience w coated is they only coat the wound strings... so it does nothing for me as the unwound strings corrode just as fast as normal.  they tend to be a hair dark anyway. 

now on bass... totally fine with dark and all strings are wound so I use tapewound or dr black beauties.  your mileage may vary.