Philippe Bosset (PB) ACO1253 80/20 bronze Light 12-53

Guitar: 1938 Gibson Super 400
Genre: Chord melody jazz
Pick: Dunlop 205

In general I tend to use the BP 80/20 mediums on my 38 Gibson S400. Because during colder days the 13's sometimes feels somewhat stiff I opted for the 12's.

Initially the high E string broke (production error I guess) but in the end the of the day, I managed to get the guitar stringed up and ready for use. The first thing I noted was that the B and E strings sounded thin compared to the extremely rich highs that I got from the set of 13's. The lower 4 strings (E-G) simply weren't up for the job. I missed the low end that I'm used to (and even with the 13's this could be better, see review) and it seems that my guitar particularly needs to tension associated with thicker strings. All in all, while I love the PB 80/20's as such, the 12's are not the string to use with a relatively large and robust older archtop guitar. My guess is that they do a better job with more modern and somewhat smaller guitars.

Would I recommend the strings? Well, the sound is even and the harmony between the individual strings is good. I would recommend them for archtops smaller than 18". For an S400 however it seems that these strings are simply too thin in order to obtain the extraordinary sounds that I get out of the set of 13s with this guitar.