Acoustic Guitar Strings - My Favourites

Medium Gauge Phosphor Bronze strings [12 to 53] are my all around favourite strings for everyday acoustic playing, they are bright and alive with plenty of attack and they project well. Guitars that have a thicker soundboard may need a heavier gauge string to get the soundboard resonating, you have to work a bit harder but the payoff is in the tone and volume you get. Light gauge strings just won't do the job if you want to do justice to a Gibson J200. I also have a Yamaha APX 20 acoustic that is a shallow bodied guitar with a stereo under saddle pickup which leans more toward the way an electric guitar is played and for that I use lighter gauge strings [11 to 50] and treat it like an electric or semi-acoustic guitar. I have too many guitars so for the ones that don't get played that often coated strings like "Elixir" do a pretty good job. They maintain tone for a long time and don't corrode due to the polymer coating on the strings. Not as bright as the plain phosphor bronze and more expensive as well but they do last a long time. It takes a bit of trial and error to get an ideal match for a particular guitar. I have a small bodied acoustic with a slightly shorter string length and it just won't tune with light gauge strings. With medium gauge strings it behaves perfectly but a couple of times when I have tried light strings I had to take them off after about half an hour.When you change strings it is a great idea to keep the front of the packet to identify the gauge of strings and also to write the date you put them on. That way if they are a great string you replace them with a matched set without guessing brands and you get an idea how long they last.