I haven't changed the strings on my sticks for quite some time (years?). With a guitar, I usually change them when I break a string, or when they start to oxidize. I can't really tell if the sticks sound dead from beat strings, so I just leave them on.

How often do you change strings? Is it after so many hours of playing? Do you notice they are sounding dull, then change them?

I know this question has been asked before. Somwhere there must be a string of answers

Hey...if they still sound bright and lovely to your ears, then don't change them yet. If the low bass strings still have that growl, wait!

Otherwise, if they sound and feel dead, lethargic, and muddy...change!

Strings are like underwear, I always know when to change them.

There was a famous Motown bass player, James Jamerson, who never changed his bass guitar strings unless a string broke. He said "the dirt keeps in the funk."

I've heard similar stories of how the great sax players lubricated their reeds with the sweat gland behind the lower part of the ear. I've been playing sax for a long time and I've yet to try this. The one thing that I do, is shave my reeds with a safety razor and a glass mirror. Out of a box of 10 reeds, I usually only find one or two that are suitable to my ear. After shaving the reeds, all 10 are usable. I bought a book that taught me how to make my own reeds, called 'The Art of Saxophone Playing' by Larry Teal.

I've heard this too for bass strings, and I have the same approach. However, for guitar strings, the dirt accumulates on the plain ones making them harder to slide and less comfortable to play.

In the Stick, you have a mixture of them on both sides, but with proper cleaning and caring, strings can last forever (still sounding good).

I'd recommend Fast Fret (not an ad), I use it for my guitars and basses (and Stick too), before and after playing and they feel really good.

When they don't "tune" is when I go. This set is lasting forever. I usually come up with some excuse to change them, but these have been tuning up nicely for long after the usual "they sound dull" period. And this set has been thru hell-I dropped the Stick "face-first" and dented 7th & 11th strings-the 7th I had an extra, I was experimenting w/ a different gauge and just put the original gauge on, but the 11th was dented and it settled in. So I was REALLY ready for a new set, but they settled in. (They usually go a year before I can't tune them). That being said, no matter WHEN you put a new set on, they sound like a harpsicord (Thank you Gene Perry).
Oh, and I've been using "Finger-ease" since I was a teenager (I have a photo from my first band-Jazz Bass). Spray version of "Fast-Fret".

Lots of great tips here. On my 10 and 12 string instruments, I change both sides every ~8-10 months. Don's been using that same Jamerson technique for a long time, it's pretty dead - which can sound cool.

A lot of my lines are interwoven in the upper registers of the left hand, so it never quite works out for me with dead strings.

I like changing the strings for the NS in and about the same time period as I like snappy strings.

When strings pitch in and out of key easily when you press down, it's time to change.