My aging Takamine has always been stable and meaty on D'Addario ej17 phosphor bronze strings, chosen for the bassy, solid sound. There's always been a bit of a clankiness to the sound which I put down to the thick top on the guitar strangling some of the resonances in favour of a stable amplified sound.

I've recently picked up a cheapo second hand acoustic because I couldn't resist the full but soft bass and clear percussive top end. It had fairly light strings on which didn't sit well in DADGAD, though so I put some ej17s on it. It has now lost the full bass and developed the clankiness of the Tak.

Was I wrong all along?

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Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".

Yes

Not necessarily...

it's never been quite as simple as 'heavier gauge strings sound better'. That's the trouble with Rules of Thumb, they are only a good guide so long as you understand the assumptions behind them.

And with string gauges it gets especially complex because you have to look at both the differences between light and heavy strings AND how they interact with the guitar.

When you work from light to heavy gauge strings (all other things being equal) you are doing two things. For any given note you are increasing both the mass of the string and the tension. Both increase the potential energy available when you pick or strum. That increased potential energy is seen as increased volume and increased harmonic complexity. Or in other words, light gauge strings have quite a pure tone with a string fundamental and as you get heavier gauges you start to get a stronger contribution from the harmonics.

However, you don't get something for nothing. As you increase string gauge it gets harder for the metal to flex at the short wavelengths of the higher harmonics. The string will still generate those harmonics, but because of the limits of the materials the harmonics go progressively sharp relative to the fundamental. This is known as Inharmonicity. Essentially, the string is out of tune with itself at the higher harmonics. Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing because it makes for a more complex and interesting tone. It can work very well with both lead guitar and fingerstyle. But when you are playing chords, especially complex or extended chords, that can mush out the bottom end and make the top end quite harsh and brittle sounding.

Then you have to factor in the guitar, and especially the front of an acoustic guitar. It's not a perfect analogy, but you can compare an acoustic guitar with a guitar amplifier. The height of the saddle is the pre-amp gain, the front is the EQ, and the whole body is the power amp.

The higher the saddle, the more it amplifies the string vibrations. A light top with light bracing will vibrate freely, a heavier top and/or heavier braces will damp the higher frequencies.

And just as it is possible to overdrive an amp, it is possible to overdrive the front of an acoustic guitar.

And that's why you have to choose the right gauge strings for your playing style AND each individual guitar. There's no 'one size fits all' option I'm afraid.

Hope that helps.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Thanks Andy. That's confirmed what I suspected.

I thought I'd finished with gauge experimentation some time ago. Seems not.

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Ohm's Law states, "Your PA isn't as powerful as you think it is".