What is the benefit of higher strings and lower strings?

[enes]

What are the benefits of higher strings and lower strings? How does it effect the sound? and how does it effect your playing?

[dalandan]

it has a bigger effect on your playing than it does on tone IMHO. although a lot of people would disagree.

you wont be able to play as fast and as easily with higher strings. but lower ones are a bit harder to bend for me. i can't seem to feel the bend as much.

i like my strings a bit on the high side because I like the tension better.

[siore]

Originally Posted by enes

What are the benefits of higher strings and lower strings?

Higher: Better tone. Note breathes more when you dig into those bends. Much more expressive.
Lower: More economical to play faster stuff (eg. diatonic scales played as legatos).

Those are the differences that matter to me. I like it somewhere in the middle, something that allows me to get the best of both worlds.

[jonesy]

Higher action/ strings will give you a bit more volume and you will get more "bounce" from your strings when you play, also better if you play some slide once in a while.

Lower action will allow ease of fretting as it takes less pressure to push strings down, so you may be able to play a bit faster. To low of action will cause problems like fret buzz and decreased attack.