I was fortunate in that the store I purchased my guitar from (3 months ago, yesterday) offers a free string change every 3 months for life. So, unless I break one, I will be changing strings every 3 months. [br][br]Since I have shifted to mostly fingerpicking, I need to get better at wiping them down after every session. I could definitely tell the difference in sound when I got home, especially on the lower 3 strings.