I usually play with nickel strings - I find stainless steel a bit too bright sounding, with a slight tendency to grip your fingers on position shifts - so I was particularly interested to see if the coating on the strings would have any effect on tone and playability.

No real problems stringing up my Yamaha TRB5, which was about to be used at The Aberdeen Jazz Festival for two gigs, and then a three hour band rehearsal that evening! The strings came into tune fairly quickly (with the usual pulling around to speed things along), and were still pretty close when I got to the first gig (outdoors, and pretty cold). When I arrived for my second (indoor) gig that afternoon, they were out by as much as a quarter tone, but I'm putting that down to extreme differences of temperature - once retuned, they held their pitch reliably for the entire set and the following rehearsal.

The strings did feel a bit 'grippy' on the fingers at first, but nowhere near as bad as plain stainless steel, and it didn't take long to adjust. You can't see the coating, but you can definitely feel it - however, after a 20min warmup you quickly get used to it. I think the coating cuts down a lot of string noise on position shifts too.

Really good tension, remarkably consistent across all five strings, tailing off ever so slightly as you progress towards the 5th string - to be expected, as this is a medium gauge with a light B (.045-.135 is also available, so I'll try those next time!). I've known some players who slide a brass collar over the string down to the ball end before passing the string through the bridge, to add a centimetre or two to the overall string length and increase tension; not an option with these strings, as the end of the roundwound wrap barely passes the nut in normal use!

Exceptional tone! Clear high end without being irritatingly harsh on the ear, well balanced mids (essential on a five string), and a solid low end boom. Coating seems to make no difference here, other than taking the edge off without loss of overtones - all the advantages of older, played in strings, with none of the drawbacks! Possibly the coating contributes to the warmer quality of the tone too, although that's more likely due to the steel in the strings themselves. I'd even give these strings the edge over my usual nickel preference, especially if the life of the top end is extended, preventing that flat 'dead string' sound.

It'll be interesting to see how the coating stands up to my heavy bass playing schedule - I usually change strings quite often (used to be once a month, now more like quarterly)... I'm fortunate to be a very 'dry' player, and my strings don't suffer much from sweat or finger residue, so I can see these strings lasting a long time if the coating stands up to constant use.

So! Highly recommended...