Originally Posted by
Bill Kapaun
It sounds like a bad batch of spokes and/or possibly bad build.
New spokes & a competent build and it would be better than new.
Agreed.
Material flaw might cause one spoke to break. After the third failure (and an accelerated rate), you've probably got a cheap machine-built wheel with undertensioned spokes. The spokes have cyclic stressed, and many if not all the original spokes are close to failure.
If you want to tackle this yourself, tighten all the spokes a quarter turn (if you're a musician, see if they're now near an A above middle C). Put on some heavy gloves, and squeeze the dickens out of adjacent pairs on each side. If more break, replace and re-squeeze until the wheel is solid. That's not economically viable if you don't do it yourself.
It's worth asking the source of your new wheel if they checked the tension. Probably not, and it would be well to get a competent wheel builder to properly tension and stress-relieve the new wheel. (Once you've found that competent builder, you might get him or her to check on your rear wheel, too.)