We should bear in mind that there are only two or three actual manufacturers of guitar strings in North America. I can only think of D'Addario and Martin. Martin bought the Darco company, a few years ago, and moved it to Pennsylvania, except that the Darco brand is assembled in Mexico, by Martin. Every other brand is made by one of these companies. Elixer even says, on their Web site somewhere, that they buy their strings and coat them with Gore Tex.

The more interesting questions are those of material and guage. I like 80/20 much better than phosphor bronze, and I use light guage because I am primarily a country blues and folk music fingerpicker and not a professional performer. Lights are easier to bend notes on too.

A small bodied guitar, especially one with scalloped braces calls for light guage strings. Lights will allow the top to vibrate more and give more sound. Flatpickers and rhythm players generally play dreadnoughts and prefer medium guage, for the stiffness and louder sound. Doc Watson uses mediums. On a National or a Dobro, I would expect to see heavy guage strings but nowhere else.