Using Medium/Lights on a Gibson J45

[JackB1]

Yes I tried them and they did fatten up the sound a tad, but the trade off is that thicker strings are a little tougher to play. When you are playing 3-4 hour gigs, this is something to consider.

Originally Posted by paulzoom

That's the one. Martin is the only string manufacturer I have found that makes the .5 on all there strings. It's the only true medium/lite.

[Jmaulz]

I've found the Martin light/mediums to be a great stepping stone between gauges, going both ways, sometimes they were the answer, sometimes not. I've used them on both my D-28 and OM-21, but have ended up going with mediums and lights, respectively.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by JackB1

Yes I tried them and they did fatten up the sound a tad, but the trade off is that thicker strings are a little tougher to play. When you are playing 3-4 hour gigs, this is something to consider.

I never play more than an hour at a time so it's not an issue but that is a good point.

[Pnewsom]

Are the strings you currently use coated? I find coated strings give up a lot of tone and volume. Uncoated strings are cheap, perhaps try a set of D'Addario EJ16's.

[shekie]

Thought I would post an update on this thread. First up were the Martin MA545's, I put them on my Gibson last Wednesday and played them in through Saturday. One of the posters in this thread (JackB1) mentioned they fattened up the sound but he found them more difficult to play due to the increased string tension, especially when playing for long periods of time. That was exactly my experience, they definitely fattened up the sound, but at the cost of some mighty sore fingertips, and my callouses are 5 years in the making. They felt surprisingly tight to me, despite being tweeners between lights and mediums.

So on Saturday afternoon, I trekked down to The Music Emporium (lucky to live just one town over from them) and purchased the Santa Cruz medium tension parabolic strings. I've been using them since and find that they sort-of-kind-a fatten up the sound (barely) but are significantly easier on the fingers. Like everything else in life, it's a trade-off, I really liked the sound I was getting from the Martins, but much prefer the play-ability of the Santa Cruz strings. Also, the Martins are roughly a 1/3 of the price of the Santa Cruz, though I have no idea how long either string set will last. For now, I'll keep the Santa Cruz strings on, but given the sound and price of the Martins, I sure wish they were a little easier on the fingers.