if you play "jazzbox" guitars, the hollow-body type with the traditional f-holes, you may be opt for traditional flat-would strings, or the more contemporary round-wound ones.
and, if you like their strings coated, for lower friction at fingering, extended durability, and (last but not least) the lack of that disgusting smell that most non-coated strings release, after a short while, there were not many options available, if a wound-G string was needed, in the 012-052 weight set of strings...
it's typical of jazz guitar, if you're "comping" harmony on the four lowest strings... you try it with the non-wound G string of any typical solidbody electric, and it sounds alien, somewhat out of place.
there was only a brand, until now, and the one i've been using for the past twenty years, with low-friction coated (wound-G) .012–.052 nickel-plated round-wound steel strings – Gore.
these D'Addario XSE do what they did, at first touch: tone-wise they match my expectation, feel-wise too, and they stay in tune only after a few minutes you've stretched them on anew.
there's even room for a couple of improvements that i wasn't expecting, too: their core appears to me less stiff than that of Elixirs, therefore winding them tight onto tuning machines' shafts requires less effort – and, even better, the wrapped-around ball-side end of un-wounded strings (here: B and high-E) appears to have been soldered, so the final turn won't bite or puncture neither the most delicate skin on hands and fingers!
can't say how long they'll last, yet – but, given these two functional improvements, i'm ok even if they'll last a day (or week, or month) less than Elixirs.
