I play guitar as well as doing all the maintenance myself. When I would change the strings I would pretty much just get some cheapo strings since I'm only practicing. You could easily find a pack of 6 guitar strings for about $5. Once I began to try violin I noticed that under $10 would be a miracle. I don't really know much about violin at this point, but I can tell that the strings are of good quality and should last for awhile.