I played around with different gauges. I tried something new every few months. The lighter ones were easier on the fingers but they went out of tune too easily - and the open G never sounded right. The heavier ones were harder to get good clean notes and tore up my fingers.

I've sort of settled on Ernie Ball Earthwood Lights 11/15/22/30/42/52 (bronze alloy)and been pretty happy with them.

I use the Martin studio performance strings that came with my D1. I know sometimes you have to be careful with changing string gauge, it can affect the tension on the neck. On one of my cheap guitars, i changed to lighter tension strings, then noticed i had fret buzz on the high E. Had to take it to the guitar shop and have the truss rod re-adjusted. This may not happen with higher-end guitars, but i just "play it safe", (no pun intended) and stick to whatever came with it from the factory.

No pun intended? Then I'm look'n for your next "break-out" lead .

So am i, George!

I'm using D'addario EXP 12s on my acoustic currently, which sound and feel fantastic, but don't last very long. That's not a big deal to me, since I don't really mind changing strings.

I would not, however, put Elixer strings on, ever. Under any circumstances. They sound terrible and feel weird, and their "incredible" coating comes off after a couple of weeks anyway.

I am, however, a bending kind of person. Thus, I may switch to 11s, but either way, I like the D'addarios. Just be aware that D'addarios are tighter than most strings, so whatever gauge you're using, you may want to lower by a gauge, unless you like moree tension.

If you don't like D'addarios, Ernie Balls are nice too, especially the Titanium cores. They last longer naturally, and sound great.

Hope this helped.

Mr535
It shows you how subjective this is. I find the Elixirs sound great on my Gibson, not so great on my Guild. When I went to guitar camp last month I played that Gibson day and night for four days, the strings sounded great even when I got home. I use D'Addarios on my Guild too, BTW.

When we took the workshop with Uwe Kruger, he swears by Elixirs and basically told us that we should use them. His guitar sounds pretty good, amplified and unamplified (this is a sarcastic understatement in case you didn't catch it). I don't see how you can make such a blanket dogmatic statement about something so subjective as strings.

I have met other pro guitarists that use Elixirs and they sound pretty good (to say the least).