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It's been about 3 weeks since I first strung up my first build so I'm still in the honeymoon phase. I still don't feel like it's finished but part of that is just jitters I suppose, which is partly what's causing me to post the following question: how do I determine what the ideal strings are for my guitar? I've come to the partly-uninformed conclusion that strings that are too light seem to want to buzz and pull sharp - but that's most likely because as a player I've become conditioned to mediums and my setup skills have yet to be refined. OTOH mediums seem to really wake the guitar up but there's that little movie in my mind's eye where the bridge flies off the body - even if there is no visual evidence to support that fear.

FWIW I'm still conflicted as to which gauge I prefer from a player's perspective. I'm leaning toward going with bluegrass strings so that I be more flexible with the upper strings.

I assume that there are some sort of fancy technical tools out there that I can't afford, so is there a rule of thumb to go by? Or is blind faith and a little bit of luck okay to go by?

I do not know of a magic instrument. If you are use to playing with Bluegrass mediums give them a try.

I think it comes mostly from experimentation Neil. And even then the final choice is personal preference (sound, feel, etc.). If you are looking for a happy medium you may want to try the new Martin Tony Rice Signature Monels. I really like them. They are what I would call medium light.

it is like dating. You have to find out what it likes so you get what you want .
Also don't be afraid to play with pins.

tippie53 wrote:it is like dating. You have to find out what it likes so you get what you want .
Also don't be afraid to play with pins.

X2

I put mediums on a recent build (an OM), played it a while, switched them out for light strings, played it a while, and decided that I liked the mediums better. I put the mediums on another shorter-scale one (a 00 with a 24.5 scale length) and they're working fine, but I've kept the light-gauge strings for if I want to see how the 00 works with them.

Strings are cheap (at least the set-up strings I buy are). As I do with any guitar I've owned, I'll invest in better quality strings once I'm satisfied with what gauge works best with it. The guitar will tell you soon enough what it wants once it's figured out how to be a guitar.