What is the time of life of unopened brand new Ernie Ball Strings?

[Carl]

Hi Guys,

First Post here. I got a big question for anyone who can know about it. I live in Caracas, Venezuela. and for those who don´t know about it, this country is really **** up right now, we are living the most horrible crisis in our whole history. and because of that the musician are paying the bigger prize.

Two year ago all the guitars store here stopped selling Ernie ball Strings (I use Slinky 10-46) They can not pay for bring new guitars strings to the country. the all go to bankruptcy. At that time i buy a huge packs of string to be cautious. and today, like they they reported before, we have 0 strings in the market to buy. so sad...

But my real question is:

What is the time life of a unopened Ernie Ball set?m

Because, the last time, past month, i open a set and all the first strings (G-B-e) and they were rusty.

Lesson learned. but i got a good friend in the U.S. and maybe he can help me with a few Ernie Ball guitar strings by mail. and i need to know how time a got to use them.

Tanx guys!

C-

 

[beej]

Carl, your best best is to call or email the EB customer service guys directly and ask them. Info is in my signature.

 

[tbonesullivan]

When I buy strings in bulk, I usually put them in a sealed zip lock bag, to keep oxygen and moisture away. I've got strings that are 5-10 years old that still look just fine.

 

[spychocyco]

With the newer sealed packaging, they seem to have a longer shelf life. I've used strings that were over a year old, and they were just fine.

 

[DrKev]

I have a ziplock bag of leftover strings I took out of open packs over ten years ago, long before the current packaging came out, and they are all fine.

 

[spychocyco]

I have a ziplock bag of leftover strings I took out of open packs over ten years ago, long before the current packaging came out, and they are all fine.

Not happening in the Louisiana swamp. I'm a big fan of the new packaging.