For a single string, I wouldn't put him through the hassle. I love where I live, but cross-border shopping can be a real pain at times.
Whit, you're a prince. We have an awfully liberal policy on string replacement. I truly appreciate a customer who sees things from both sides.
The flat wound strings are very unique. They are brittle. That doesn't mean they aren't durable. It just means that you run a good risk of snapping one if you take it off and put it back on again. We talk about it on the Flat Wound page.
I don't get to leave strings on very long, so durability is hard for me to judge. Just the same, I know from experience that round wound strings are subject to fast wear. We took great care to find the most durable material possible for our Round Wounds, and people have reported excellent life span for these strings.
With Flat Wounds, I had a good feeling about their durability - they sounded so good, and being able to play without "finger squeak", I decided to offer them anyway. I just couldn't manage to leave a set on long enough to know about the durability for sure.
Reports are confirming my suspicions, however. Take a look at this thread:
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/f...say-about-wound-Low-G-strings&highlight=Wound
It seems our flat wound strings are actually a strong candidate for the most durable of all wound strings, with one caveat. Take them off, and you stand a good chance of losing them when they go back on.
I've tossed a bunch of them - because of neccessity, I'm always changing strings, and it's about a 50-50 shot if you can get them to hold up once you've taken them off. If you love to switch your strings around, stick to the more conventional Round Wounds. Ours are polished, so in addition to being durable, they don't squeak all that badly. But if you can leave a set of strings on - like Magoosan in the thread above - no telling how long before you'll need to change a set of Flat Wounds.
Thanks again, Whit. Love my customers!