Ok, so my A string snapped. Big deal. I was meaning to change them anyway. I put on the new strings. No biggie. Gave me something to do. I was stretching the strings after they were on. The A string snapped. I can't type the word that exploded from my mouth, as it's against forum rules. I went into my dad's little drawer full of really old used strings he should have thrown out decades ago. These strings sit in there amongst the harmonicas which are rusted and smell of dad's smoky breath.

Now my A string is nasty. It smells like rusting string combined with smoker's breath, which is really exactly what it is.