Acoustic Strings?

Which strings should i use?

Any brand; 12-gauge is the standard "light" gauge. Mediums (usually 13-gauge) might sound a little richer. Elixir is a brand you might try if you don't want to change them often; they are coated and tend to last longer (though they cost a bit more.)

other suggestions about making this guitar more playable are welcome.

Adjust the height of the saddle and the nut if necessary. That should make a nice improvement in playability. If you haven't done this before, you may want to drop 50 bucks and get it set up professionally; otherwise learn to do it all yourself and you'll be better off in the long run. The Rogue would be a good one to learn on, if nothing else. ;)

You will probaby want to stick with the lights, unless you get the nut cut for mediums at the same time the action is adjusted.

I would (did) experiment with several brands and strings types: Coated vs uncoated; phosphor bronze vs 80/20 bronze vs wound vs unwound 3rd etc. Every brand and model of string imparts it's own character unto the guitar, so experiment! It took me a couple of months to settle on D'addario phosphor bronze (12-52), though there are several other brands that I liked.

If you don't want it really loud, you might wanna try silk-n-steel strings. Martin makes them in 11.5 gauge and other manufacturers also make some, they'll also be easier on your fingers if you're a newbie. Ask 100 people what strings they favor and you'll probably get about 20 differant answers. Experiment and you'll find the strings that are right for U.

I like those strings that DrunkRock menchined they have a nice balince to them.

Rotosound are inexpensive, so you can experiment with them a little. I use Country Gold 11s on my Washburn

Best,

A :-)

Thanks for the replies, folks!

Alright, an update. I adjusted the action on the guitar :D
I mainly referred to Nils' guide on guitar setup. It's excellent.This guide looks at different aspects of the setup but i only changed the action. I didn't want to play around with the nut and didn't have the allen key to adjust the neck.

Started off by measuring the height at the 12th fret and noted down amount that needed to be shaved off the saddle. The height was nearly twice the standard height given on the guide. I decided to start off with a small amount.
Then loosened the strings and removed the pins. The saddle was tightly wedged in the slot so had to carefully pull it out with pliers. Marked two dots on both ends of the saddle at the height to be removed and drew a straight line with a pencil. Then slowly filed out the extra bit of saddle with sand paper. I popped the saddle back in the slot and pushed it in. It went in deeper than i expected. I think the saddle wasn't pushed all the way in the slot initially. I figured if the saddle had held the strings originally despite not being fully pushed in the slot it might still be able to hold them. So i slightly pulled the saddle upto the position i originally aimed for and restrung the strings. When i started tuning, i started off with the Es and measured the heights and adjusted to make sure i had the desired height. But when i started tuning the G the high E side of the saddle went *pop* (went all the way down in the slot, the saddle couldn't hold the string i guess). I decided to push the saddle all the way down and hoped i wouldn't get fret buzz. The gap at the lower frets is lesser than i originally intended but thankfully there isn't any fret buzz.

There is still more gap at the 12th fret than at the lower frets and probably the neck needs to be adjusted slightly. But the action at the lower frets is *much* better now. I put on exilir lights on the guitar and it sounds quite good now. That's all for now but i think that's not the last time that guitar has been adjusted. :mrgreen:

For all i know i might have done something stupid but the chords sound right and the guitar stays in tune :P . For anyone wanting to adjust the action, it's surprisingly easy. Just make sure you work with small increments. The cycle of filing the saddle, restringing and checking takes time but you might come across a surprise like i did. Keep a spare saddle if you want. Thanks for reading and thanks Nils :)

Only thing about that is that if the truss rod does need adjusting, it affects the action height as well. So do changes in the humidity; the action rises when the humidity goes up and falls when the humidity does.