Russel,
Thanks for the response. I figured a big Guild Dred shouldn't have trouble with "Medium Strings" I bought a set of mediums .013 - .056, but just for fun I wanted to try something more "abusive". I swapped the Bass E & A to .059 & .048 respectively & it makes a dramatic difference. Authoratiative, impressed all the girls.
I had to have the neck reset on my F20 a year ago & really don't want to go there again unnecessarily. After takin the new girl out for a jam last night, I changed back to lighter (medium) guage strings. It still sounds darned good, just not as much testosterone. Now that I know what the big strings do, I can install them again if I ever get involved in a big guitar fight.
My guitar tweaker (luthier?) is backed up for a few weeks but I asked him to work me in. He did such a nice job on the F20 I am a bit spoiled & have become pretty critical. I think the action issues can be addressed with the truss rod, maybe a little saddle work.