I know this guitar builder guy who gave me a couple tips on stringing a guitar. It's a bit more important to the sound than alot of people think.
If you have to cut it before you put in on, like on a Fender where the string goes down in the hole, bend the wound strings 90-degrees between where you are going to cut it and the bridge to lock the windings. The windings can come loose from the core. Even if you don't cut them before installing them, you should be careful with the wound ones for that reason.
You need to figure out the correct ammount of slack to leave so that there aren't too many wounds round the tuner's post. On my strat, I pull the string through the bridge then cut it so that it reaches to the tuner after the adjacent one. That is, make the Low E string reach the D string tuner. On my jambolin, you don't shove the end down in and the tuners might be a tidge closer together so I adjust it accordingly. I try to get at least 2 whole wraps around the post but not more than three. Except the plain strings. You can get 6 wraps around them if you want. Just not too few.
I agree not to take all the strings off at once every time. Every once in a while I smear a little 3-in-1 oil on the fretboard - maybe once a year.
I haven't bought strings by the pack in a long long time. Guitar center has boxes of ernie balls for like $34 for 12 sets right now.
a set at the store in Australia - at least in Perth.
