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the usual first sign for me is i start to feel and hear more rattles and flubbiness and less ping and zing (sorry if i'm confounding you with technical jargon).
bass strings i don't even really think about. sometimes years without a change.
guitars a lot more, but no idea exactly how much in years because i switch between instruments. so i might use my guitar loads or barely in the same year (eb slinky 10s usually).
of basses, bass rounds last least for me it seems. plus i like my rounds super-responsive to all the 'non-musical' noise that accompanies my playing (mine probably more than most).
so they above all types, can't be dull or slack. maybe every 2 or 3 years on average, as i play.
i'm only just trying my first set of flats, so have no idea how they last. possibly longer since they don't have the 'noise' of rounds that makes me aware of them starting to go. i've only got basic flats, but if they last years i might try fancy. budget dictates prudence.
the longest lasting bass strings i have ever had were tapewounds, and my theory is that the winding keeps them 'sealed for freshness'. obviously sweat and air can't get to the metal.
a bit of hand sweat and air may not seem a big deal, but salt (acid) and oxygen (oxidising) are quite heavy duty corrosives when combined with time. will happily wear through stone in a few years.
but i regularly played tapewounds for more than five years and they never lost their zing at all. i switched to guitar for for five years and retuned to the bass, and they were still good. for all i know (i sold the bass) they are still going now.
so if you want lasting (desert island), i recommend tapewounds all other factors considered.
but i think all this 'must & should' change every three gigs, every three months, every three years, is just marketing with maybe a bit of player superstition and neurosis fed in.
I know of three individuals within a thirty miles radius whose corrosive sweat is so bad that they can kill all of the treble of brand new strings in eight days. Two of them also smoke roll ups. I do not know what contribution the tars make to the issue.
Citation most definitely needed.
just applying my science brain to that for moment, it may be that the tars in the smokey ambient environment leave a thin tacky oily film residue over everything in the environment they occupy, including the strings.
so just like greasy smears on the inside of a car windscreen in winter frost can hold condensation to it, sweat on fingers when playing (and general humidity in the air from breathing and interior climate) will be trapped on the string surface 24/7.
or at least to a considerably greater degree than would be the case if the water could evaporate off unimpeded.
so the strings are effectively constantly acid wet from the first instant they get that sticky coat. with resultant corrosion and oxidisation accelerated (in relation to normal string ageing) by whatever factor that may be. could be anything from marginal to major.
it's an idea to consider anyway.
"they're the two i use. two is adequate."
since 'psychocandy' has been in my top 10 albums ever since i first heard it, i don't question his wisdom. he knows his art.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Try taking them off again - not from the bridge if they don't just un-hook - but fully slack at the machineheads, then re-fit them, stretching them thoroughly. If necessary, repeat this more than once. I'm not sure how effective it will be on bass strings, but it works on guitar strings.
I first discovered this when working on vintage Fenders where the strings have to come off to adjust the truss rod.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I only use round wounds and have for the last 30 years. I play quite aggressively usually and in the last year I have broken a string 3 times (never happened before). I think that was due to the strings having been on the bass 2 years or so. But I try to change if I remember every six months.
And yes I do boil them. It makes a huge difference bringing them back to life but I dont do it often. I play natural finished basses that require waxing ever so often so I sometimes boil the strings when I am giving them the once over.