Guitar Player has a helpful article discussing string materials, height, size, durability, and shape. Here’s an excerpt:
HEAVIER STRINGS CAN SOUND BIGGER… BUT NOT ALWAYS: Thicker strings can make you sound bigger, but only if partnered with an appropriate playing style. If you hammer the strings hard to get a lot of movement out of those wires, going up a gauge or two might suite your playing style fine. But if you’re a more delicate player, you might not get those strings moving, and going up a gauge might just choke your tone. Jimi Hendrix is known to have used .009 and .010 sets, and tone monsters Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page both purportedly used super-light sets with .008 high-E strings. Wimps? Ha! SRV used .012 or .013 sets, but also tuned his Strats down a half-step to Eb, which makes a .012 feel more like an .011.
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Thanks for any and all advice hat can be passed on to us.
Man, I’ve been back and forth with this over the years and I totally agree that technique is an important consideration, but it also depends on the music you are playing and the particular guitar too.
When I play Jazz I like a heavier string…I go for D’addario flatwound 11′s, but I swap out the 11 for a 12. The guitar is a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion. But those would suck on my strat, which is strung with 10′s. I play everything else, and some jazz too, on that.