Hi d,addario 11,s for me. 89 standard strat. mark knopfler strat.Cheers..from..Aus...

I played Dean Markley Blue Steel ever since they came out. I did 10 to 46 for years and switched to 10 to 52. Blue Steel got too hard to find and I went to DR.

D'Addario all the way I use 10's on my Frankenstrat and 9's on my tele. They always sound great!

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2011 American Special HSS Strat
2002 Deluxe Double Fat Strat
2010 Standard Tele
Hot Rod Deluxe (with Euro Tubes)
Breedlove AC25/CM Plus

on my MIM strat (with TS neck and middle, and DiMarzio DP409) and squier affinity tele (tonerider vintage PUs) I use GHS sub zero 9's-.42.
On my 1993 Gibson Nighthawk SP3, only Gibson Vintage Reissue Brite Wires .09-.42.
On my Cort acoustic, Elixir nanoweb 10-46 (I think it's 46).

I am happy with all of them. My strings last me about 8 hours of string bending blues-like playing and riffs. Then they go dull.
On my acoustic which I rarely play (a total of 20 hours in six months) I change every 6 months or even more. They retain brilliance and tone. But dont do any bendings there...

I would like to try the DR again, I used to love them while I still had a MIA stratocaster, but got stolen...

man if your strings are only lasting you 8 hrs something is seriously wrong.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Why do you say that? I am sure they go dull after that, plus notches appear under the D string, which lead to faster fret filing, so in order to avoid refretting or fret dressing often, I prefer to change strings sooner. It keeps my sound bright and my guitar with minimum wear.

either way, a quality set of strings should last well over 8 hrs.
if mine went dull after 8 hrs i would be changing strings 3 or 4 times a week.
at $6 a pop thats $24 a week just for 1 guitar. close to $300 a month for the 3 guitars that i actually play. yeah, better quality strings are in order.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Not a bad habit, though. Guitar strings are far better than cigarettes.

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"Another day in paradise!"

what do you mean by that? (my native language is greek)
Do you mean I should buy better strings? Strings that last longer? If so, will I find my favorite sound there? I have tried D'addarios but they were not what I liked in terms of sound. And they didnt stay in tune at all. Perhaps it was a bad batch, who knows... Have tried Fender too, but not too happy with them...

ok my new greek friend, heres what i suggest.
if you go back over this post you will see that D'addarios and the ernie ball strings
show up more than any others. thats because they are very very good strings.
retry the addarios. if they didnt stay in tune there was something wrong. either they were not stretched properly or something. might have even been a bad batch of strings.
they and the ernies are great strings. now, peoples body types are different too. you might sweat a lot when playing with is ok as long as you wipe down your strings after playing. some peoples body produces more acid in their sweat than others which will dull strings rather quickly. if i had to bet, i would say you either got a bad batch of strings or you didnt stretch them out good enough. try them again paying attention to both string cleaning and stretching. it will save you loads of money in the long run and i think you will find that im right on the 2 possible causes.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

+1 lack of string streching was my mim strats problem

ok so you might even find that you actually dont like either brand of the strings i mentioned. thats ok too, some dont. thing is, if your brand new strings are going dull in 8 hrs of play time something just isnt right. ok its possible in some rare cases, but i just think there is something thats slipping past you and your not seeing it as the cause.
ok, do any of your friends play your guitars too by chance? do you live sea side?
(i would die to live sea side in your country. the food, the people, the music, the women,
the ocean. lol i could go on and on)
this problem of yours has me puzzled. im interested in trying to help you find this cause of premature string dullness.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

..........well considered, dude My first thought....location, location, location.

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"Another day in paradise!"

How about re-titling this thread 'The Incredible String Brand"
........and just to second Waycool's observations....I does appear that EB's and D'Ad's are the front runners.....and not too far apart in manufacture it seems.

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"Another day in paradise!"

That's what I've noticed too. Out of all the hundreds of strings out there and all the manufacturers, ERNIE BALL and D'ADDARIO are the top two string brands which last and last and still sound great.

I like them both, but I tend to favor EB's more, simply because I went a record 2 months on a set of EB's before I had to change them.