Looking at restringing with extra light strings from light to medium, well , intonation issues is the first thing to come to mind.
On electric guitars, it is not to difficult to adjust the intonation since most (repeat! MOST) bridges are adjustable and have a decent amount of travel to accommodate string gauge changes. Say, from .11 to .09. If you wanted to go to .11 to .08, then you'd really be pushing the limits on the bridge adjustment.
On acoustics, the only thing you can EASILY adjust (Easily being the relative term here), is the saddle. It can be moved up and down, which usually does NOT affect intonation. You can stay at the same same string gauge and just have the saddle ( the bone or plastic piece that the strings actually sit on) lowered and it will make playing barre chords easier. Yes, you will lose some tone and a little volume. You may also get a little bit of buzz on the bass strings. But only if you really lower the action a LOT.
I found this out 20 years ago when I got a new acoustic nd asked the store to go from .12 to .10 strings. (.12-.52 and .10-.46)
When they did, the guy running the store used an electric tuner to make sure it was in tune, played a few open chords and that was it. I got it home and tried playing barre chords and they were horribly out of tune. Reason? Trying to go to such an extreme change.
The intonation issue arises when you go to a much lighter string. When you tune the guitar with a tuner, all strings open, it will sound OK. Then , you go to play "open" chords, or in the first position, they may sound OK. As you go up the neck, then the barre chords will sound out of tune. If you try to tweak each string so the barre chords sound OK, then the open (first position chords) will sound out of tune. Intonating an acoustic guitar is far more difficult than an electric. It can be done, but really needs to be done by a luthier or a very good guitar tech.
Many times, each guitar has shims under the saddle. If you have not tried to change gauges yet, try going down just one size and remove ALL the strings, carefully lift the saddle and see if there are shims under it. If there are, remove a couple and then tune up and see how it plays. If it is easier and tuning UP AND DOWN the neck is ok, you're golden. If tuning is ok, but it's still too high, loosen all the strings and try to slide the saddle out again and remove another shim. Tune up and try it again.
There are some good videos on line on line showing how to do this, so watch a couple, then carefully try it. It really isn't difficult. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, check out a local Guitar repair person or a luthier.Tell them what you want is the action lowered to enable easier barre chords. They should be able to do the job in less than a day (unless they are busy) and it shouldn't cost very much at all.
Good Luck!
Andy
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