Ted Greene's Epiphone Deluxe

[fws6]

Klatu like you I have switched from the 013s to the 012s however havent really changed the action , acoustic volume is quite enough anyways

[teleman3726]

I use 12's on the Triumph but for some reason they seem too thin.
I'm thinking about 13's but am a little worried about the effect on the neck (pre truss rod era).
I used to use very light strings on all my guitars but now have - for some reason - developed a liking to thicker ones.
I have 11's on my tele and Les Paul and they seem to work well (even for lots of those 'bendy' blues solos)

[Klatu]

I wouldn't worry about the added tension of thicker gauge strings effecting the neck. Guitars of that era were customarily strung with heavier strings than are commonly used today. As a matter of fact, the Triumphs in my collection all have truss rods, and the necks hardly move at all when switching between 12 and 13 gauge sets.

[Klatu]

Klatu like you I have switched from the 013s to the 012s however havent really changed the action , acoustic volume is quite enough anyways

Since I always had my Triumphs strung with 13s and the acoustic response wasn't what I expected when played fingerstyle, I blamed the guitar telling myself that such instruments were built for big band volume rather than the more delicate fingerstyle or bebop styles. However, that changed when I switched over to 12s. Once I properly set up the guitar for the lighter gauge, I noticed that while overall volume had decreased, the max volume was being reached with far less force used to move the strings. This meant that the lighter touch of the fingers, or lightning single line bebop runs spoke with the full force of the guitars rather than the pinched shadow of their potential.