There have been plenty of times, when figuring out how to best optimize a new guitar, that I've been less than satisfied with the tonal response and playability of stock gauge string sets. It's usually fairly obvious whether it's the tension of the treble, middle or bass pairs of strings that need to be tweaked a little; sometimes five of the stock set's gauges are perfect and it's only one that's the problem child.
Since I'm both a multi-instrumentalist and an artist endorser for a string manufacturer, I've got all kinds of different gauges of strings stuck in one of my music room cabinet's drawers. When I hit a roadblock using stock sets and have to figure out how to adjust for it, I just do it empirically and try a few different gauges (sometimes different alloys, too,) until I get the sound and playability I want. I just poke around in that drawer and pull out a few possibilities and give them a try.
Sometimes when I see strings for oddball instruments or alloys that failed in the marketplace on clearance sale at music stores for a dollar apiece or whatever, I'll spend a whopping three or four bucks and pick up a few different sets with no immediate intention of using them. I stick them in that music room drawer, and then maybe three years later one of them will provide the perfect strange gauge I need for something.
Sometimes if there's a delay of years before I use the strings there can be a spot of corrosion on them here and there, but that doesn't matter for this use. It's just for R&D purposes. When assembling performance-grade sets I get new singles of the gauges I need and assemble them into complete sets.
It was this trial and error approach that led me to the string gauges that I use on my baritone guitar, and which John Pearse Strings & Accessories now makes and markets as their 3280M Medium Gauge Standard Tuning baritone set.
Most people don't play as many different species of stringed instruments as I do, and most don't have as many guitars pass through their hands. So obviously most players don't need to take this same approach. But it's useful to keep it in mind, maybe get a spare set of sale strings in gauges you don't normally play, just in case if you ever find yourself needing to tweak a ready-made string set by replacing a a string or two with different gauges.
Sometimes just replacing one regular string in a standard set can make a huge difference in how a guitar plays and sounds, so it's worth experimenting with. When that happens, I write down what gauges are needed and store that in the guitar's case pocket.
Then I assemble a few sets so I don't have to stop and think through it again when I need to change strings on that instrument.
When I got a new Tacoma EM-9 some twenty years ago, lights were too wimpy on that guitar and mediums stifled the sound. After my usual trial and error, I settled on a modified bluegrass gauge set (light gauge trebles, medium basses,) with the medium gauge .035 D string from that set replaced with a .032. Once I had that figured out, that little guitar just ROARED.
So, Matt, by all means continue looking for a prepackaged string set that will do exactly what you need it to do on that instrument. It obviously makes life much easier if you can just order a few sets and not have to tweak things any further.
But sometimes it can help to experiment with other less obvious gauges on a string or two. Just depends on the guitar the strings go on.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
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