Academy 12 on order.....

[Airborne]

And it comes from the factory with elixir phosphor bronze strings. These strings might turn out to be the best that I’ve ever heard, but what strings do you Academy owners use and why? This guitar was ordered without playing due to the virus situation and a severe GAS virus which I have been infected with! I know strings are subjective, just looking for some input. I think I will be adding a pickguard and upgrade the pins and possibly the truss rod cover. Hopefully will receive the guitar sometime in May. Thanks for any opinions.

[mgap]

Congratulations on the guitar order, I hope you will enjoy it for many years. 
I have always played Elixer strings, not to say I have not tried many other string manufacturers and gauges, I have.  You will eventually find the ones you prefer.  My opinion is that the Elixer strings offer excellent tone and last a long time.  One thing is for sure if you ask on the forum what is the best you will open up a hornets nest of opinions, doing a search here you will find loads of information on the subject. 
The add ons that you plan will offer a way to make your new guitar with bit of personality to it.  I like the no pick guard look myself, have you considered a clear pick guard?   

[Airborne]

Congratulations on the guitar order, I hope you will enjoy it for many years. 
I have always played Elixer strings, not to say I have not tried many other string manufacturers and gauges, I have.  You will eventually find the ones you prefer.  My opinion is that the Elixer strings offer excellent tone and last a long time.  One thing is for sure if you ask on the forum what is the best you will open up a hornets nest of opinions, doing a search here you will find loads of information on the subject. 
The add ons that you plan will offer a way to make your new guitar with bit of personality to it.  I like the no pick guard look myself, have you considered a clear pick guard?   

I have considered the clear pick guard, but it isn’t for me, I like a regular guard instead. On a different site I saw photos of an A12 with pick guard, truss rod cover, and abalone ebony pins and the guitar was beautiful, yet not gaudy. I will need to see, handle, and play it before any features are added.

[Frettingflyer]

One of those may have followed me home yesterday, so look for a NGD soon from me. This was the 2nd guitar of the Buy one get one promotion. So, I can not recommend strings at this point, I do usually go with the Elixer’s for the long life and what I consider good tone. I also like D’addario and SCGC low tension parabolic on Taylors, fwiw.
Enjoy the new guitar, I was quite surprised in the store by how good of a value this is.

[Airborne]

Congrats on the new guitars! Looking forward to photos, and of course, your opinion of the Academy 12!

[jricc]

Congrats on a nice, well-made, good sounding guitar!

[donlyn]

Airborne,

Congratulations. I got to play one a while back and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. In the past, Taylor has put either Lights or HD Lights on their smaller guitars before shipping. Do you know which set yours will have when it arrives?

Elixirs are my favorites, so there's some reinforcement for you about them. I have 2 Grand Concerts, siblings of the Academy 12, both of which are strung with PB HD Lights. They have .001 extra diameter in the three treble strings which gives a wee bit of extra oomph to the treble. I like the result so much that I put that PB HD Light set on my 818e Grand Orchestra. Bought with Medium gauge, but at some point replaced with the HD Lights. And now PB HD Lights adorn my Gibson J-200 Jumbo. With the larger Instruments, it takes a bit away from the medium bass strings and provides a better balance over all.

Elixir string tension chart for Phosphor Bronze strings are on the Elixir webpage:

https://www.elixirstrings.com/support/string-tension-for-tuning-guitar

Don

[jricc]

I've played 4 different A12s and 1 A10.  They were all really good except for one A12, which just wasnt right, flat, dull sounding. 

[erwinem]

I love my A12e. It is so comfortable and sounds good too.