Lighter gauge E string with rounds=better tone?

[shoulderpet]

I have heard people say before that going lighter on strings you lose tone and wanted to share something interesting that I have found and that is the correlation between string stiffness and tone. 

Longtime Rotosound user but have dabbled with Fender strings, Daddario etc but always come back to Rotos, one thing I have found that has ime been consistent across brands is that lighter gauge E strings have a better, clearer and better balanced tone. 

To elaborate further I find that with a heavier E string because the string is stiffer it thumps more, the overtones become muted by the initial attack of the note and by the slightly lessened sustain of the heavier string, the effect is subtle but imo it is definitely there and on a brand new set of strings it is even more pronounced due to the brightness of the strings, on flatwounds this is probably desirable but not so much on rounds where you are generally aiming for clarity of tone, I tend to go one gauge lighter on my E string (100-85-65-45)

Anyone else found the same thing? 

 

 

[TheGreek]

I use light strings on everything - 95s on 4 strings and 110/115 on 5ers. 

I haven't noticed any loss of tone (nor has anybody ever commented on it) - and lighter strings were popular in the 80s and nobody ever commented on that. In general we are talking about 0.05 to 0.10 aren't we?

[Skybone]

Not sure about this one.

Always used to use the Roto 40-95 set many, many moons ago, but then went on to the "standard" 45-105's, in a multitude of makes. More than happy with them.

[Lozz196]

After years of 110s & 105s I now use 45-100s. I find these match with a Precision better due to the pickup placement, having the thinner E & A, and thinking about it yes, the thinner E does fit better sound wise. With most strings it always seemed the A, D & G sounded like part of the same gang with the E being a new prospect that was nearly in the gang but not quite.