I have a question regarding guitar string gauge. and what strings should I get ?

Question

My Yamaha RGX-A2 guitar is now 1 year old and it still has the same strings it came with. I am starting to feel them wear out, and I want to change them. The thing is, I want to put in 0.010-.0.052 gauge strings (I believe they are thicker) because I've heard they sound more juicy:D, but then I stumbled across Ernie Ball's Super Slinky strings(thinner strings, but I've read that a lot of artists use them). And how might a change of gauge affect my guitar neck/bridge or playing? I really have no notion regarding strings, so please help me out. Thank you!

Answer 1

the general rule of thumbis that the thicker the gauge, the better the tone....thinner gauges will sound brassy or tinny at the higher registers due to lack of mass in the string itself. 1 year is waaaayyyyy too long for any set of strings, even when rarely played. 10's are a good place to start moving up of you've been playing on those hair-thin .009's. your goal should be to be at a minimum of .011's within 5 years. it takes awhile to get used to and build up the hand strength with each successive move up in gauge. the action (string height at bridge, 12th fret and nut slot width) will have to be adjusted when you move up to another size of string, because most guitars are setup for .009 from the factory. going to a larger gauge will upset the intonation at the 12th fret and at the 1st you may get rubbing of bottoming out on the 1-4 fret area, but this is an easy and cheap adjustment by any competent guitar shop. some guitars do have a little leeway built in for the jump from .009 to .010 so you may have no issues at all but my fenders are very sensitive to any change in thension and/or diameter. ernie balls are good strings, but if you can find them, give DR strings a try, their manufacturing technique allows a very large string mass in a very small diameter string for it's gauge, and has awesome tone. i play on .013's now after 30 years of playing and while it took a few years to make the jump from .011, to .012 to .013, it was worth the wait in terms of fat,meaty tone