well, here's my take.
I have to go through strings pretty regularly. I've played almost every string & make and have a Koa guitar. Koa is an interesting tone wood it doesn't have the deep bass or the highs of maple. Walnut and Koa are very similar woods.
Without getting to geeky about the shape of the string core...
I've found that almost every reputable comapny's medium guage 80/20 phosphor bronze works with almost any guitar (Pearse, D'addario, GHS, Pyramid, etc..). I agree with Allen's staement:
"D'Addario medium phosphor bronze have been the most consistent tonally for me." I use them the most often on all my guitars. I also like the Martin Marquis as well.
I'm not into waterproof strings - I also hate the fraying of the Gore-Tex on the strings from pick wear. that may account for so of the "deadness" you're hearing. The gore-tex fibers mute the transient noise of picking.

for the curious, if you want to minimize the amount of "seep" (my term for the the noise the left hand fingers make) GHS makes a semi-flat (actually rollerwound - like their Nickel Rocker cousins for the electric) set for the acoustic guitar.
Pyramids are interesting made in Germany and handwound. They use unpolished bronze so every string has a slightly different hue. I've found it to be a very dark string.

As a great musician once said to me: the SOUND is in your hands!" and he's right. you'll get exponentially more timbre variation from switching pick guages than strings guages.

Cheers,
B.

well, here's my take.
I have to go through strings pretty regularly. I've played almost every string & make and have a Koa guitar. Koa is an interesting tone wood it doesn't have the deep bass or the highs of maple. Walnut and Koa are very similar woods.
Without getting to geeky about the shape of the string core...
I've found that almost every reputable comapny's medium guage 80/20 phosphor bronze works with almost any guitar (Pearse, D'addario, GHS, Pyramid, etc..). I agree with Allen's staement:
"D'Addario medium phosphor bronze have been the most consistent tonally for me." I use them the most often on all my guitars. I also like the Martin Marquis as well.
I'm not into waterproof strings - I also hate the fraying of the Gore-Tex on the strings from pick wear. that may account for so of the "deadness" you're hearing. The gore-tex fibers mute the transient noise of picking.

for the curious, if you want to minimize the amount of "seep" (my term for the the noise the left hand fingers make) GHS makes a semi-flat (actually rollerwound - like their Nickel Rocker cousins for the electric) set for the acoustic guitar.
Pyramids are interesting made in Germany and handwound. They use unpolished bronze so every string has a slightly different hue. I've found it to be a very dark string.

As a great musician once said to me: the SOUND is in your hands!" and he's right. you'll get exponentially more timbre variation from switching pick guages than strings guages.

Cheers,
B.

That's worth repeating.

sorry for the repeats...my browser stalled on me last night.

On my 2 Collings Dreads CW and DIAV I usually use D'Aquisto 740 (13-58). They give great tone. I tried the Tony R nickel wound ones and wasn't too keen on their sound. I bought several pack of D'Addario EXp, tried the first set.....dead in 2 hrs of playing so I sent the back and they sent me a couple of sets of J-17.
I sometimes use J-17s but lately I have had corroded ones even in the sealed bag. The tone is good though not as big as the D'Aquisto. Tried Elixir....broke a g string on every set...not much tone either. I tried some Elixir Nanowebs on the CW and they had a mellow pleasant tone and were nice to the touch. I do prefer the phosphor bronze and at $49 for 12 the DAquisto's are my choice. I even had a '45 00-18 scalloped and voiced for the big strings
great sound

I like John Pearse 80/20s on my OM1, I go back and forth between lights and mediums.
I use Elixers (med) once in awhile on the OM as well since I gig with the Collings and they last. I always hate the sound when I put them on but by the 3rd week, or 5th gig they sound pretty good.