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.
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.