Thicker = better?

There is this general acceptance of thicker-gauged strings being 'better' to the ears. Thusfar, I don't find such strings appealing in solid body electrics, the Ibanez Talman acoustic guitar of mine you see above was once equipped with a set of .011s when I first bought it. I didn't even keep those for long, in fact, I replaced them with a set of .010s when I reached home that day. However, I recently bought a a pack of .011s for it with the intention of rekindling the slightest of interest in embracing that gauge set but NO... they were still repulsive to me, so back to a pack of .010s... It's all a matter of preference, yes? Majority of my guitars are in standard tuning so a set of .009s in them manifest the best tension for my playing quirks, it's the most beneficial for a light picker like me.

A Talman weekend

I spent the last 2 days playing my Ibanez Talmans.

Saturday, 5th Feb

I spent about 2 hours (at night) playing my acoustic Talman. Sometimes it's good to focus on finger dexterity, leaving the pick aside. For the first half hour or so, it's an unplugged session but frustration set in because I plucked my strings too hard, the right hand became lethargic & mistakes set in. Subsequently, I got the bass amp out & plugged the guitar into it with some chorus & it was a joy to hear that tingling cleans. No chords in play though, just some triads & arpeggios.

Sunday, 6th Feb

I tried to emulate yesterday's clean + chorus episode without much success because the TM-71 in use here isn't a pure acoustic instrument.There's no full-sounding hollow cleans to be had. So it was distortion thereafter, this induced some speed in me but when it's all about speed, the musical aspects of playing gets compromised. Sometimes, when one gets too comfortable with one's gear, drifting into utter rubbish is inevitable.

Ibanez: Talman TCY10EDX

Yes, this is an acquisition from yesterday's Ibanez SALE @ Swee Lee; the Talman TCY10EDX. I'm not an acoustic guitar fan, so the Talman speaks for my inclinations- some very solid body-like specs manifested in an acoustic format. Specifically- thinner acoustic body + slimmer neck.

The guitar features a very basic pre-amp (AEQ-200T, one of Ibanez's most fundamental make): Volume + 2-band EQ (I'd prefer 3, some midrange manipulations would be good) & an on-board tuner. All these are functional upon plugging into an amp, unplugged, the guitar is strictly acoustic.

The tell-tale signs of good QC lies with the binding works (among others). Impressive workmanship would mean no binding material bleeding into the guitar's finish. As seen above, the Talman's binding did bleed into the blue finish manifesting a jagged end-product. This would imply some hurried production exercise back at the factory or some novice hands at the job. I can't come quite come to terms with the default string gauge either, I suspect it's a set of .011 in there, a total reject for me. Let's see what can be done after lunch...