The Martin SP's Bronze are grand, and with the bronze plating the salt from yer hands doesn't corrode them...they sound decent and last for as long as you'd care to keep them...maybe even longer. I' use em' on a L'Arrivee which sounds pretty decent with about any kind of strings...the engineer at the last recording studio said it was the best sounding acoustic he'd ever heard. (but then he mostly records rock and jazz, not acoustic folk trash like I play.)