Man, I hear ya' on dishing out deneros for strings. I "only" have (6) guitars, and between all of them, it seems like I'm re-stringing one every few days. I'm a fairly "aggressive" player, so it probably is partially my own fault. I used to use Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, and I'd always be busting the A or G string on those. I switched to D'Addario XL's, and they performed much better than the EB's. I've heard a lot of players mention the MF brand of strings, and that they were pretty durable, and sounded decent. I like using new/er strings when I play live, so if I could save a few $$ here and there, it would be of great benefit. I may just tap you later for that "secret" code.