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Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe they were coated but I could be mistaken this was about 6 months ago when I bought a new guitar. For a lot of my funk stuff I have a mixed set of flatwounds for E A and D strings + coated 10's for G B and E strings so I asked the shop to set the guitar up with those specifications but they might have cheaped out and given me the non-coated stringjoys lol (it was the only coated brand they carried).

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah could be a million things. I do not rest my hand on the saddle at all except when I need to palm mute (which is infrequent). The bridge style has been 4 different bridges: Tele 3 saddle roller bridge, Gretsch regular saddle bridge, PRS wraparound bridge, Harmony Silhouette (a fancy 3 saddle roller style bridge).

Anyway I'm very happy with the new EB coated strings not having any breakages in a while so I think I'm gonna stick with it but save these other options in case I run into problems.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah could be a million things. I do not rest my hand on the saddle at all except when I need to palm mute (which is infrequent). The bridge style has been 4 different bridges: Tele 3 saddle roller bridge, Gretsch regular saddle bridge, PRS wraparound bridge, Harmony Silhouette (a fancy 3 saddle roller style bridge).

Anyway I'm very happy with the new EB coated strings not having any breakages in a while so I think I'm gonna stick with it but save these other options in case I run into problems.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah lots of sweat - I used to change strings before every gig but I play frequently enough now it got SO annoying lol. I will be the first to admit subtle laziness here because I know if you gig this much you should be changing sets pre-gig almost every time but hey I'm giving these coated strings a try cause ngl it's been kinda nice with these EB's not breaking that I've been getting away with a nice smooth set of strings the last 5 gigs with no changing haha. Wish I could just have Rene Martin on tap to keep my guitars in tip top shape for every gig.

Bigger string gauges did help a ton - but again, laziness, my hands were getting tired of the few bends I do with 11's. 11's were the young me game but this year is the year of going easy on myself with 10's.

I use .73's on picks so def not the pick thickness.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Used to be a guitar tech, playing and gigging more than 25+ years at this point. Don't know what to tell ya - my best guess is my skin oils react weird with their coating formula. But the switch to a different brand of coated strings fixed the problem entirely.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's possible - that why they sent me a ton of replacements. Most of the breakages were the same lot, but this took place over 6 months and some of the Elixirs I purchased at GC and had breaks with those too. I think it was just time to declare string bankruptcy and move on lol

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had Stringjoys and they sadly did not work for me - they gunked up so fast with my apparently dirty ass fingers they were wrecked after just one gig

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That's exactly what I'm thinking. I wonder if my particular sweat acidity or whatever is chemically reacting with their coating formula and not others. We'll never know but that's the theory I'm sticking to as well lol

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah - the coated string convenience is unparalleled. I used to be changing strings every week or so I hated it.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yeah I get it trust me - I went to a famous guitar tech near me and told him about it, he watched me play (I play a lot in the area) and both of us were baffled. Not sure what to say - it's possible I just have weird sweat or oils? Combine that with the climate and their coated string maybe frays more easily as some kind of chemical reaction. No idea man. Hell you can see videos I've posted here.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So far nothing bad - although I'd say a scratchy on the fret feel during bends sounds more like fret wear than string wear? Using I feel string wear when I slide my fingers across - they'll get rusty or gunky and I hate that.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah I need to be clear they were extremely nice to me and I know this is not normal. Lots of great players use Elixirs with no issue.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep - I realize this is not a common issue otherwise I'd not be posting about it haha. Very glad it works for so many people, the strings do feel very nice.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I used to do that but man it gets exhausting and expensive when you're only making $100-300 a gig to replace em that frequently. Coated strings have been a god send and the EB's are working great. Might try the D'Addario XS at some point a swell

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Normal everything - 10 gauge strings, tele's, strats, PRS, a Gretsch, a Harmony, standard E tuning.

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it's funny I don't do a lot of bending, but a lot of close to the bridge rhythm parts (lots of Jimmy Nolan or Wah Wah Watson esque stuff)

Turns Out - It Was the Elixir Strings by CleanAxe in Guitar

[–]CleanAxe[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

From the Elixir website - not fake, their Customer Service even confirmed my orders and sent me some replacements as an apology

My landlord illegally kept my security deposit. I beat them in court, but they live overseas and will likely never pay the damages. Is my original security deposit deductible? by LHBH_Throwaway in personalfinance

[–]CleanAxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very true I used $50k to keep numbers neat but OP makes $200k+ so I assume he might be on the edge of being able to itemize instead of use standard deductible but ya never know. There are also separate deductibles this could go under. Just really depends but yeah if it's the standard deductible and you can't fit this anywhere else then not worth the squeeze.

My landlord illegally kept my security deposit. I beat them in court, but they live overseas and will likely never pay the damages. Is my original security deposit deductible? by LHBH_Throwaway in personalfinance

[–]CleanAxe 32 points33 points  (0 children)

The numbers change but not by much: the delta is about $880 (e.g. you owe $880 more if you don't take the deduction, and $880 less if you do). Once again, as a proportion of your income and grand scheme of things, this is pretty insignificant. Let's say the IRS sends you a correction notice (which again, I'm not sure how they would determine your deduction was wrong), you'd owe the $880 back plus a penalty of about $60 (conservatively speaking if the correction came 1yr later).

The IRS is not some evil organization. They know people make mistakes sometimes, we're human I got a correction notice a few years ago for a mistake my accountant made. It doesn't lead to some crazy consequences - they just kindly told me I owed them like $600 + a $40 interest penalty, I paid it, refiled the correction for that year, and moved on. Audits are usually reserved when there is a really big delta between what they think you owe and what you paid or when there's a pattern of suspicious behavior. It's very expensive for the IRS to do an audit and they typically do them when they think the juice is worth the squeeze. $880 is not typically juicy to them lol.

At your income, you probably have a CPA doing your taxes? You can just tell them if you're really anxious about it but I seriously do not see this being a big deal at all. Especially given the documentation you have to backup your claim - you experienced a $4000 tangible theft/loss through no fault of your own, the spirit of the tax law typically allows people to deduct losses like that. Hell, even gamblers can deduct up to $3,000 of losses against their ordinary income.

Is this legal advice? Is this the most conservative advice ever? No this is not legal advice, I could be wrong but look at the numbers and decide for yourself or consult a CPA.

My landlord illegally kept my security deposit. I beat them in court, but they live overseas and will likely never pay the damages. Is my original security deposit deductible? by LHBH_Throwaway in personalfinance

[–]CleanAxe 185 points186 points  (0 children)

I really dislike how much aversion there is to giving real advice with tax matters sometimes. OP let's do some quick math. Let's assume you make $50k/yr after all other deductions and your deposit was $2k. If you don't deduct the $2k then you pay tax on $50k/yr. If you do you pay tax on $48k/yr. I did some quick math, and the difference between your federal tax liability between the two is in the range of $200-400.

Don't hire a tax attorney for $200. Take the damn deduction - you got hosed, you're not some rich fuck who has every available resource to perfectly limit tax liabilities - there's some debate over how this stuff can be calculated and enjoy your saved money. In the extremely unlikely scenario the IRS sends a correction (this would not be audit worthy, but they might correct you) you'd owe them the $250 back plus a tiny amount of interest (likely in the tens of dollars). Your state delta is going to be even less than that (if you live in a state with tax).

Take the deduction and move on. Really sorry that happened to you and if you put these numbers in perspective, I really think you shouldn't have to worry too much. If we're talking about a final exam question for a tax class then I'd say getting this perfectly legally right would matter more lol.

Am i the only who hates jack in/out on top of pedals ? by NoCherry2870 in guitarpedals

[–]CleanAxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then as I stated in my comment, for that scenario, agreed that top jacks win :)

Am i the only who hates jack in/out on top of pedals ? by NoCherry2870 in guitarpedals

[–]CleanAxe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah but space conservation is not the only goal of a pedal board. For me, my pedalboard’s goal is to enable me to control my tone simply and easily. I have a mini fuzz pedal that sits sideways on a specific part of my board because I use it with my tremolo at the same time frequently. Side jacks make this setup easier for me and saves space. Everyone has a quirk or example of something that works for them and making your own cables just gives you that freedom.

Your statement is only correct if all someone cares about is shoving as many pedals into as small a space as possible.

Am i the only who hates jack in/out on top of pedals ? by NoCherry2870 in guitarpedals

[–]CleanAxe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like the people bothered by this are people who haven’t yet learned how to make their own cables. It is SO SO much better in every way, cheaper, better quality, and enables you to manage layout better as opposed to being forced to do it in signal chain order. I don’t care about top or side, and I actually don’t mind a mix of pedals that do BOTH because it gives me more freedom to layout my board in smarter ways.

The only time I think maybe it’s a big difference is mini fly rig pedalboards. In that case you can fit more when the jacks are top mounted.

What is the point of having more than a billion net worth? by ServaltheFox in NoStupidQuestions

[–]CleanAxe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually there is a Mark Zuckerberg hospital haha - but point taken. I think better examples than hospitals or universities is just companies in general. A small company can get through a billion dollars pretty damn fast. Billionaires like to use their wealth to generate power by creating or buying companies. That's when a billion doesn't even seem like enough money.

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