Ah, those were the days. A twelve dollar, mail order Stella. Black Diamond strings ranging from ten cents all the way up to a quarter for replacements. Anyone else remember removing the windings from tattered bass strings and using them for treble strings, or salvaging lengths of broken guitar strings for use on mandolins or fiddles? And then there was that almost forgotten technology for rejoining broken strings. I still have a fiddle strung with Black Diamonds, and a few ancient individuals in their original red envelopes.