hi bluesman. You have alot of choices to make. Do you want to play in open tuning or standard or dropped D, my choice. They all have good points . A rule of thumb is the thicker the strings, the fatter the tone. It is a trade off with the ability to bend. Heavier strings make it easier to keep the
slide off the fretts. I would consider 12s on the light side. I am moving up to 16s for the tone which means damn few bends for me. Read through all the posts here for information on setting up your guitar as well as answers for most of your questions. We have a few guys here who I would consider pro or semi pro so you have a deep pool of experience to draw from. Read the intros and direct your questions to them. Kirk has some great slide lessons on his beginners guitar forum. They are for dropped D if your interested. Glad you found our forum.welcome.
allthumbs