I had the same set of Elixers on my Jem for over a year - they never went out of tune (at least nothing the fine tuner couldnt fix) and I gave them a lot of abuse. I recently decided to change strings and popped on a set of Super Slinky 9's and after about three days of tuning then retuning they finally calmed down and became stable... but the difference in tone was significant! The Slinky's are a lot brighter, have better sustain and a clearer fuller sound. I used to clean my Elixer's obsessively so it wasn't a build up of grime, they just had a flatter tone than the non coated strings. Certainly worth trying out though. If you are a tone junky then you might find them flat but if you want super longevity they are perfect.