For me, old strings are utility not nostalgia: I love the sound and feel of rusted old guitar strings (conversely I hate the sound of old bass strings, but that's a different story). So I threw the old strings away. I had to change the whole set in order to maintain balance. It's a good thing that I had a spare set of Extra Slinkys when I bought the strings 18 years ago. The unwound strings had some rust to them, bonus! I spent the night restringing my SG, I'll tune it up tomorrow.
Compare the old 18 year old E string to the new 18 year old E string. The old isn't old enough! I want to get a hold of electric guitar strings from a guitar that's been sitting around in someone's attic or basement since the 1950's.
