An Updated Look At PFAS In Coated Guitar Strings

Over the last several months I’ve been working to better understand the use of PFAS in the guitar industry, specifically as it relates to coated guitar strings. This research was inspired by the number of questions I received from concerned guitar players after publishing this article.

Here’s what I have turned up in my initial investigation!

Stringjoy: According to an employee at Stringjoy, they use an enamel-based coating that doesn’t contain any “fluorinated” products in their coated strings. For those interested in avoiding PFAS, these are good to go!

D’Addario: According to an employee at D’Addario, they do use teflon (known as PTFE) to produce their XS series of coated guitar strings. However, they reported that their XT series of coated guitar strings does not contain teflon or PFAS of any kind.

Ernie Ball: I have reached out to a long time contact at Ernie Ball who has forwarded my request internally. I will update this once I have word from them.

GHS Strings: According to a wonderful employee who read my original article on this topic, GHS is happy to report they use a non-toxic enamel with “no teflon or PFAS involved” in their coated strings. For those interested in avoiding PFAS, these are good to go!

Martin Guitars: I emailed Martin Guitars in reference to their use of teflon, PFAS, and chemicals in coated strings and will update this as soon as I hear back.

Elixer Strings: While I have not yet been able to contact anyone at this company, Elixer is a subsidiary of W.L. Gore & Associates, a known user of teflon/PTFE and other fluoropolymers in many of their products. The use of PFAS by Gore when developing Elixer strings is described in this recent article that also features a short interview with me!

What other coated strings do I need to research? Let me know!

Quick Facts on PFAS in Guitar Strings

• PFAS = per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a diverse family of man-made contaminants. Several PFAS compounds have exhibited persistence and negative human health effects. The USEPA has some great reference material on PFAS.

• PTFE (known as teflon) is not harmful to the human body, thus the teflon touching your fingers when you play guitar is not currently considered a direct health threat.

• PTFE is manufactured using various PFAS compounds, so while PTFE is not harmful to you directly, it’s production has resulted in PFAS reaching the environment through releases from industrial sources and releases from consumer products.

• PTFE could be a source of PFAS if there are any present as impurities in a product. I.e., some small amounts of PFAS used during manufacturing could be in the final teflon coated product. Think of it like finding a really tiny piece of eggshell in a pan of baked brownies.

• In dueling arguments, many industry-led papers have argued that fluoropolymers like PTFE present no threat to human health while a group of scientists pushed back with their own paper disputing this claim. Overall, it is my personal opinion (as a scientist) that the industry group does not provide sufficient evidence that fluoropolymers can be completely categorized as harmless.

This article will be updated as new information rolls in! I will also be working to present plain language translations of the technical scientific papers discussed in this page.