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Old 01-15-2013, 02:42 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is online now
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Coastal Washington State
Posts: 44,927
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Hi Tom,

Welcome to the AGF! Glad you joined in!

You have already had a great bunch of responses here. We could argue all day about whether a guitar is better with medium or light strings -- kind of like whose light beer is better.

A well set up guitar, meaning strings no farther off the fretboard than necessary to avoid fret buzzing, can make a huge difference regardless of whether you use light or medium strings.

A lot of people here believe that dreadnought guitars, in particular, should have medium gauge strings. And I can see their point.

I have used mediums in the past on some of my guitars, but today, all my guitars -- dreads, OM/000, small jumbos, GA. GC, whatever -- all get light strings. As a fingerstyle player, I find that the difference in playability matters a great deal and I can MOST DEFINITELY feel the difference. Add to that opinion that I am fighting osteoarthritis in my older years and I simply can't take medium strings anymore. Continuing to use them would end my playing forever.

So now you have a few opinions. You will have to decide for yourself. Most beginners start out on light strings. When you get stronger you can experiment and see whether you think mediums are for you. They might be; they might not.

- Glenn
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