Depends how much I'm playing, I had a set only last me 10 months.. but I was playing with 3 bands back then.. Usually over a year, 18 months or so at the usual 5 hours a week Thats what I loved about the slow wounds, Ok they were like 80 quids but they lasted almost 2 years of sounding fantastic and another 6 months before you thought about changing them... I did have a bad experience with d'addario recently though, I bought a set of strings for my bass.. where the tapering at the nut end of the string started at the 2nd fret, instead of the peg side of the nut :o So I took them back to the shop, who told me that they wouldnt replace them as I had already cut them to size.. I contacted d'addario, explaining the problem and also letting them know that I had been using their strings for 25 years.. But they wouldnt replace it either... $105 Aussie dollars wasted.. basturds!