My local music shop has frequent buy one and get one set free sales, so I was thinking of stocking up with a few sets.
This got me thinking. Is there a shelf life for new sealed strings? Would they be just as good in 6 months to a year if they were new and sealed?
To make it short, yes, as long as you don't touch the strings with your hands, because the acid on your hands makes them go "dead". 8)
Stairway to Freebird!
A long time on the storage. I am assuming steel strings not nylon. But steel in a sealed package will not age. Now an open string will rust, especially if you have handled the strings with your hand with all the moisture and oil they contain. A string left on a guitar will last a long time if the string is devoid of the moisture and oil on our hands. Now one left at full tension, ie load on the string, will fail if you are above the point of plastic deformation. Below this point it will not. Proved this in the lab. Professional Engineer, can you tell. :D
John M
