Light vs. Extra Light...What's the difference?

[desert2000]

Another advantage of heavier gauge strings is playability if you tune them down (drop D, DADGAD, open D, etc.).

[Kitkatjoe]

Sound
Test it with your ears. That guitar vibrates.

[woodruff]

Stopped by GC on way home yesterday and picked up D'Addario EJ 13s, custom light, .11-.52 and strung up my old Guild dread. Awesome! No pain or discomfort, did a slight truss rod adjustment to cure buzzing, and still have great tone and volume. I mean it is just 12 less pounds of pressure. Psyched!

[gr1]

ive bought a epiphone aj220s as my first guitar. I think the strings on this are 12s. im having a problem when playing the A chord. the top string of the 3 buzzing as I cant get my finger far enough left towards the fret.i know there are variations on this chord but wondering will light or ultra light strings help with this. a friend who played 15yr ago tried my guitar he added the neck seem very thin the 1/11/16 or 43mm he though I should have bought a wider nut guitar but my local store tells me the1and 11.16th is standard. any help welcome.p.s only a week in learning basic chords

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by gr1

ive bought a epiphone aj220s as my first guitar. I think the strings on this are 12s. im having a problem when playing the A chord. the top string of the 3 buzzing as I cant get my finger far enough left towards the fret.i know there are variations on this chord but wondering will light or ultra light strings help with this. a friend who played 15yr ago tried my guitar he added the neck seem very thin the 1/11/16 or 43mm he though I should have bought a wider nut guitar but my local store tells me the1and 11.16th is standard. any help welcome.p.s only a week in learning basic chords

The "3 finger" A major can be hard at first on a 1 and 11/16ths nut, especially if you have pudgy fingertips.

Most of us older folks learned on guitars of that width (classical players being the exception) and figured it out eventually. It couldn't hurt to try lighter strings. I learned on mediums and it certainly took me more than a week to fret the chords cleanly!

I actually learned to play the A major by using my first finger to press down the D and G strings and the middle finger to fret the B string. Some play all 3 strings with just the first finger.

You might give that a try. I wouldn't rush out and buy another guitar after a week

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Michael T

Stay with the mediums, you don't have to have a death grip on the neck to fret strings, mediums are fuller sounding to me. You'll adjust quickly if you haven't already, 7 months should have built some pads on your fingers by now. You may want to try a set of round "core" (not round wound) as they are more flexable than hex core strings.

I second this suggestion.
Either of these:
DR Sunbeams
DR Rares

[TBman]

In the two months since I posted in this thread I've moved up to bluegrass 12 16 24 35 45 56 - but in dadgad. Using mediums in Csus2. Standard I'm back to 12s.

[Oldguy64]

Basically, the heavier strings will move the top more.
In some cases this is a good thing.
In some cases, it takes very little effort to overdrive the guitar to the point of making it sound muddy and diffuse.

My general rule of thumb is if your style lends itself more to finger picking, you will be happier with the lightest strings that will give you a good sound. For me that means 11-52's.
if you're trying to drown out a banjo in a bluegrass band and you're flat picking, you will likely be happier with 13-56's.
if you do an equal amount of flat picking and finger picking...split the difference with 12-53 or 12-54.
Of course YMMV.

[random works]

I have 3 acoustics and have tried a boatload of string gauges, alloys, cores, etc on all three. Here are my results

one has 12's
one has 11's
one has 10's

These are my played -in guitars: the gauges are dialed in and if I change a gauge, I regret it. How long did it take to determine.....probably 3 years of buying and changing strings

For what its worth. the 12's are John Pearse pure Nickel and the others are Martin phos. bronze.