[Ken Smith]

Maybe? Don't know. But air, dirt and grease will kill the tone in the windings. That's not the same as the Strings being worn or stretched out. Also, how the are packaged may mean something. If you over bend a string, you can hurt it. Storage is also to be considered. Room temp., not to dry or moist.

We don't have too many problems with bad strings out f the pack. Anything is possible but a few calls a year at most is all we hear about. If contacted before they are used, we usually replace the string that might be sub-par.