Hi John,
I caught the same sale… my happiest day ever at GC They had a limit of 6, but the girl let me buy 6 mediums and 6 lights. They also had guitar wall hangers for like 7 bucks. I bought 3 of them and they’re just sitting here. I’ll put 'em up eventually.
My favorites are the martin lifespan phosphor bronze (msp7200 in medium and msp7100 in light). I also like the 80/20s, but the PBs are my favorite. Those strings just have the tone I want. They don’t feel odd like some of the early coated strings I tried. I use the mediums on my bigger guitars and the lights on the smaller ones. I had mediums on my OM, but I didn’t like the way the top looked with them… it looked kind of like my belly. I think it would have likely had structural issues eventually.
For fingerstyle stuff, I used to love John Pearse PBs. They have a very natural, woody sound. I have used a bunch of D’Addario PBs. They are tough to beat for availability and price. They have been a good all around string, I am sorry to hear that something may have changed with them.
My next change I want to set up one guitar to lifespans and another to one with Elxirs. I think I like the lifespans better, but I really need to A/B them with new strings. It should be interesting.