To me, a tad bit of overkill on the number of strands used in a string and maybe a tad bit loss of speed using more strands far outweighs the chance of a broken string. Even if a bow survives a string's breaking, one's sub-conscious never forgets. I've been trying out the new B55, supposedly a bit stronger than B50, but I'm still doing a minimum of 12 strands, padded, up to 50# and 14 strands doesn't bother me at all. A string breaking during a shot is one very memorable occurrence for sure. By the way, I cannot tell that B55 stretches any less than B50 in use.