I am sure this topic must have appeared on here countless times before but I will ask it anyway.I know that many guitarists and bassists change their strings very frequently whilst others leave the same strings on for years.I know that new strings have real ringing top end particularly on the wound ones. However this very quickly fades, meaning you need to adjust your amp treble settings virtually every day for the first two weeks.
Personally, I prefer the sound after about 3 weeks when the excess brightness had faded down. As there have been no gigs for a year now, I haven't changed my strings at all! I can hear you cringing but apart from the low E getting dull in harmonics, they still produce a good sound with a slight eq adjustment on the amp. It will be interesting to hear how frequently other members replace their strings.