Do you put light strings on your dread?

[Mike McLenison]

13-56 Phos Bronze tuned down a whole step.

[Russ C]

And I put 11's on mine - AND tune it down. I don't lose all that much punch and power and the guitar just sounds easy, relaxed and open .. better imo.
10's are a failure but 11 's or 12's have enough mass to move a half decent soundboard. My Martin can be a bit lack lustre if played softly (it's not that lightly built) but play the thing with any assertiveness and I love the light strings.

[AZLiberty]

Yes

However, I play with bare fingers. When played with bare fingers I find that mediums tend to "suck the tone out" of whatever they are on. They really need a medium to thick flatpick to drive them.

As always YMMV

[Glennwillow]

Do you put light strings on your dread?

I do, yes. I have been fighting osteoarthritis for at least 25 years and so medium strings really inflame my finger joints. I don't use medium strings on any kind of guitar.

And as you note, doing pull-offs with medium strings is a real killer on the finger joints and the calluses.

- Glenn

[CoffeeFan]

I put D'Addario EJ-16's on my Yairi DY-66.

It's been like that for over 30 years...

[hammer40]

My Yamaha dread came with 12’s. I spoke with Yamaha one time, they also recommended the 12’s but also mentioned to play what feels good.

I wouldn’t get caught up in what “everybody else does.” Do what works for you.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

To me it's a trade-off. I tried 12s on my D18 and could appreciate the improved playability but I also noticed a decrease in 'punch'. These are not major differences but they are there. I ended up going back to 13s on the dread. All my other guitars (including the J200) have 12s.

[Arthur Slowhand]

I just put 12-53 on everything - it means one less decision to make in life.

[llew]

It depends on the guitar. I typically use medium gauge (.013") on my square shoulder dreads and light gauge (.012's) on my slope shoulder dreads and my one 12 fret dread. Why? Because that's what sounds the best to me. No right or wrong. Use what you like and what you find best to play.

[Wade Hampton]

I use either mediums or bluegrass gauge strings (medium gauge basses, light gauge trebles) on the dreadnoughts I own. For that matter, I use mediums or bluegrass gauge strings on most of my guitars, including my 000-42 (John Pearse 80/20 mediums,) Larrivée OM-03W (John Pearse phosphor bronze mediums,) Martin D-18 (John Pearse 80/20 mediums or bluegrass gauge,) Martin 00-21 (John Pearse phosphor bronze bluegrass gauge,) and Seagull Folk model (John Pearse phosphor bronze bluegrass gauge.)

I could go on but it would get tedious....

I do have some light gauge or extra light strings on those guitars that seem to require it, like my under-braced Tacoma Papoose, but as a general rule I prefer to have the power and punch of at least medium gauge low E, A and D strings.

It really comes down to how you play and what use you put the guitar to.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Oldguy64]

I actually never go bigger than 12-53/54 on any of my guitars.
You are more likely to find me playing custom lights (11-52) on most guitars.

I PLAY guitar. I don’t WORK guitar.
I find for me, that 13’s sound “tight” on every I've played them on.
They are plenty loud. But they lose the nuance I like.
I figure that I’m prolonging the life of my fingers. And putting off a neck reset by putting less stress on the guitar.

[JTFoote]

John Pearse Custom Light 640 strings for me (.012 - .055). I fingerpick and flatpick on my dread - these do it all. Mind you though, my dread is lightly braced (1/4", scalloped), and has a little age on it, so no breaking-in or opening-up is necessary. Plenty of punch, tone, and volume. And it feels great.

... JT

[rokdog49]

Well, Gibson puts lights on their Dreads.
That's all...over and out.

[ctvolfan]

I am using 12/54 Ernie Balls on the Yamaha and 13/56 D'Addarios on the Taylor. Maybe I should try some 12-56 Light Top / Medium Bottom and see how they work out.

A couple things I did fail to mention in my original post. I did put the EB medium lights on the Taylor for a short time and if I remember well, it seemed like it didn't have enough punch. It could have just been that those strings in particular just doesn't go well with this guitar.

One other thing I failed to mention that I have seen others suggest on here. I do and have for a while had my Yamaha tuned down one step. Not for easier play-ability but because I like the way it sounds and works better with my voice on certain songs and of course I use the heck out of my capo anyway. But I don't remember the Yamaha being difficult to play at all in standard tuning with the medium lights.

I have had this 317 up for sale basically since I got it and never really warmed up to it but starting to think I shouldn't give up on it and try a few other things first. I have yet to tune down the Taylor a step. Maybe I should try that with some 12/54 or 12/56 and see what it feel like then. I think the tone on this guitar sound great but it lacks the bass I had hoped it would have. So the 12/56 tuned down a whole step makes more sense probably. It would give me the bigger bass and keep the play-ability of the treble strings at the same time. It is the treble strings that seem to bother me the most on these mediums I have on it currently.

So are the 12/56 considered bluegrass strings then?

[Ed66]

I use lights across the board on all my dreads and GA's. Going to anything lighter (Customs or Extra) just doesn't give enough punch, whereas going up to mediums doesn't give me much more volume. Plus, I play for me, not for an audience - volume over nuance is pointless