I played Rotos exclusively from 1984 until the mid 90's. Playing 6 nights a week, 50% of it being slap and having a Kahler, they lasted me about a week. If I tried to go longer they'd start breaking. I took my strings off, washed them and put them back on daily, and also learned with Rotos that it was better for me to wash them right out of the package before putting them on the first time. Seemed like there was some residue from the manufacturing process that would act like a dirt magnet and they'd start sounding noticeably deader after the first couple sets if I didn't. Even though I kept a towel on stage and washed my hands at the end of every break, I was very active on stage and sang a lot of lead and backup on most of the other songs, so they got really sweaty every night. Also, everyone was still smoking in the bars at that point. Toward the end their quality control really seemed to take a dive. This was on the road in the early 90's, so no idea how long some of the sets had sat on the store shelves before I bought them, but eventually it seemed as though every other set I was getting was dead out of the package, even after I started getting them mail order. I was such a die-hard Roto lover, I kept hoping they'd come back around, but no luck. I hung in there longer than I should have, but I ended up switching to DR High-Beams which were great from the get-go and still are for me.
