11's of 12's?

[murman]

I just bought an almost new Seagull S6 acoustic at L&M.
I play mostly with a thumb pick and have usually used Light strings with the 1st being a 12 on acoustics. I'm thinking of going with the Classic Light with the 1st being 11 when I change strings. What do you think? Any appreciable difference?

[mercy]

I think there is a huge difference. I find 11's are more musical but the 5 & 6 strings are weak so I replace them with the 6th going to the 5th and the 6th from a set of 12's I buy individually.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by murman

I just bought an almost new Seagull S6 acoustic at L&M.
I play mostly with a thumb pick and have usually used Light strings with the 1st being a 12 on acoustics. I'm thinking of going with the Classic Light with the 1st being 11 when I change strings. What do you think? Any appreciable difference?

Hi murman

The S6 is short scale (24.84" versus 25.5" on a standard steel string acoustic), so .012 tension on an S6 is more like .011 on a full-scale.

[Silly Moustache]

I can't imagine using anything lighter than a 12 on an acoustic. Your guitar would surely need to be VERY lightly built for a .011" to move the top adequately.

[Oldguy64]

I play six different dreads.
Alvarez 5013, Alvarez PD85s, Alvarez ADA1965, Alvarez MD70ce, Alvarez-Yairi GY1, Taylor 110e.
My “go to” strings are D’addario EJ16’s. (12-53).
That said, I will use EJ26’s (11-52) if they will drive the soundboard.
If I use Martin Strings, I won’t go heavier than 11-52’s. I find them to be “stiffer” than other brands.

But, I am primarily a fingerstyle player and I prefer lighter strings, or lower tension strings for their ease of play.

Play, record, listen back and see if the difference is significant enough to to play the heavier strings.

[Ozzy the dog]

I use 11's, partly because I always think they're a little kinder to the neck and top as the tension is reduced and partly because they are slightly easier to play and bend.

For the price of a set of strings it's worth trying to find your own preference.

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I can't imagine using anything lighter than a 12 on an acoustic. Your guitar would surely need to be VERY lightly built for a .011" to move the top adequately.

On my Lowden they work fine, producing quite a good volume and balance. However, as you say, on my other guitars they do leave me wanting a little more from the high 'E'. They also work very well on my beat up bottom of the bottom of the range Yamaha which is VERY lightly built.

[vindibona1]

Rule of thumb: Lighter strings produce more higher overtones. Thicker strings produce more fundamentals. A lot depends on your playing style and touch and the brand of strings you use. You can't really go by gauge, you need to understand there isn't a direct correlation between gauge and tension.

Here are a couple charts that will help to understand the differences.

[Brucebubs]

Try D'Addario Nickel Bronze 11-52's - probably the loudest and best balanced set of 11-52's I've ever used.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I can't imagine using anything lighter than a 12 on an acoustic. Your guitar would surely need to be VERY lightly built for a .011" to move the top adequately.

Hi SM

I know that's been the stock story 'out there' for years, but in reality, there are a lot of 'secret' .011 players…even on Martin D series guitars.

I find that true especially of finger stylers, and older players, or players with hand injuries.

Lightly built guitar or not, many players will sacrifice a bit of volume for the benefits .011 bring - including (for many players)...

• Less tension
• Easier to bend strings
• Better string balance

And I've handed my Olson Dreadnought (which wears .011 sets permanently) to people and allowed them to play it, and they frequently say it's the finest sounding and playing guitar they have ever played. I don't bother to tell them how it's strung…because they have found a thing of great value…a great guitar.

[ChalkLitIScream]

For me, there is a significant difference between 11 and 12s. Under full tension on a 25.5 scale.

The 12s feel like they're cutting my fingers, hard to bend 2 semitones.
The 11s feel much softer, smoother, let me do pulloffs easier, and I hear no difference in tone

[rmoretti49]

There was a recent, similar thread here that posted a YouTube video of Tony Polecastro comparing 3 different string gauges on the same guitar. The differences, to my ear (and some other forum members who watched it) were really very minor, and not obvious at all. Listen and make up your own mind. But I want guitar playing to be as pleasant as possible, and so I go for comfort nearly all the time. That means 11's or specialized strings (such as Newtone Heritage, Thomastic-Infeld Plectrums, or Martin Flexcore), or even silk\bronze or silk\steel.

[Jmaulz]

Each to their own, of course, but I use a .014 E string on both my OM (light gauge strings) and D (medium gauge strings). Anything less just doesn't sound strong enough to me.

[H2O]

Originally Posted by murman

I just bought an almost new Seagull S6 acoustic at L&M.
I play mostly with a thumb pick and have usually used Light strings with the 1st being a 12 on acoustics. I'm thinking of going with the Classic Light with the 1st being 11 when I change strings. What do you think? Any appreciable difference?

My Seagull S6 usually wears Martin Retro strings, bluegrass gauge (.013/.056).

[lowrider]

My Seagull Entourage Concert came with 11's. It sounds great. It's staying that way!

[Goat Mick]

I’ve tried 11’s on most of my guitars and they sound fine but I get a bit better out of 12’s so all but two of my guitars wear 12’s. Now my Martin DM didn’t really like 12’s but really came to life with 13’s so that’s what it gets. Also my Ibanez sounded great played lightly with 12’s but did not hold up well to strumming at all so I went to 13’s on it and it became deep and robust and a totally different guitar. I’ll never go back to lighter strings on that one. Moral of the story is you just gotta experiment to find a guitar’s happy place.