Should I replace unwound strings on my acoustic guitar as often as the wound ones?

Question

The wound strings wear off quite fast, and start sounding dull even faster, so I replace them quite often. But whenever I do so, I replace the unwound strings as well, even though at that point, they usually still sound bright and show no sign of wear at all.

I must say I have never given it any thought. It's kind of a superstitious ritual to me to take all six strings off, clean everything, and put a whole set of new strings on. But, leaving the benefits of the extensive cleaning aside for a moment, does that make sense? Or have I just been wasting money on g-b-e' strings all these years?

Before there's any misunderstanding, I'm obviously not considering putting the old unwound strings back on after cleaning; I'm talking about not taking them off in the first place, replacing the E-A-d strings as they begin to wear off, but the g-b-e' ones much less often. (Also, if that matters, I'm talking about Augustine, sometimes D'Addario.)

I have searched before posting, and I have come across this question, but it's quite broad and doesn't really address my problem here. I've also seen this question, but it's kind of the exact opposite of what I'm asking here.

Answer 1

There is no reason why should replace all strings if 2 or 3 become dull and rusty. If the higher strings still sound as bright and clear as you want them, then by all means leave them on there when you replace others.

As long as the replacement strings are not of a drastically different gauge, then only replacing some of the strings should not cause any damage/change to the instrument at all.

So as long as you can find individual strings of the type and brand you want to replace the older ones with there is no reason why you shouldn't do this. And hey, even if you can't, just use a regular pack and save the G,B and E strings for the times when you do replace them as well.

As long as you are happy with the sound of the guitar after you have replaced only a few of the 6 strings, then by all means do it :)

EDIT: here is a site that sells D'Addario single strings.