What does a good set of guitar strings cost? Autoharps have 6 times as many. As mentioned by Malcolm Douglas earlier, string don't usually need to be changed until they break.

I saw Ron Wall at Winfield many years ago explain that he got tired of strings breaking, and noticed that they usually broke where they passed around the post...so he loosened each one and put Vaseline one the post. "I haven't broken a string in several years", he said. When someone asked whether the tone didn't deteriorate, he said, "Well, you've been listening to me play. Did you hear a problem?"

It just isn't the same thing as a guitar, where fingers are constantly rubbing the strings.