New strings for your guitar

Hi, everyone.
The only thing better than new strings is a new guitar!

I get a lot of people asking about how often to change the strings on their guitar. A lot depends on your finger chemistry and how often you play. If your fingers are moist or your sweat is acidic, you are going to need to change your strings more often. Some indicators are that your guitar is a little harder to tune (that darn tuner!), or it sounds a little dull or , yuk, you start to see some tarnish on the finish of the strings.

The last time I played acoustic guitar in a band, I was changing strings everyday! Two hours of hammering and sweating on them made them sound pretty dull.

I really like coated strings , especially D'Addario EXP strings. They've come a long way, they sound a lot better than just a year or two ago and they last 2, 3 or 4 times as long as the non-coated strings. I think my Martins sound best with mediums so I buy the EXP17 pack. Lights are EXP16.

Phosphor bronze gives you a little warmer, mellower tone whereas the 80/20 bronze gives you a little brighter sound. I usually like the Phosphor unless the guitar sounds a little muddy.

So I started looking around for the best prices. I used EXP17 (medium phosphor bronze)as my comparison. I also added the Humidipak refill packs as an additional comparison.

The local stores are consistently higher than online, no surprise. Sometimes you can find a good deal, but usually they are only good for an emergency buy.

Online, the prices are all over the place. I checked many online places but actually tracked only nine. Two places charge about the same as what you pay locally. Most places discount a little but two locations seem to have better prices, at least right now.

First Quality Music (fqms.com) and Strings and Beyong (stringsandbeyond.com) seem to have the best prices on EXP17 and humidipak refills. At least for now.

The EXP17 at fqms.com was 8.55 and at Stringsandbeyond.com were 8.95. But the refills at fqms.com was 5.99 and at stringsandbeyond.com they were only 5.29, and 4.96 if you buy 3 at a time.

Shipping was free for orders over $49 at fqms.com and free over $35 at stringsandbeyond.com

I have ordered from fqms.com several times and have been happy with their service. I haven't used stringsandbeyond.com but I think I'll give them a try soon.

If you have any other ideas or better deals, please let me know.
Thanks, Terry Schafer