in a little time after you put the lighter gauge strings on it you may have to do a neck adjustment to pull the neck back a little flatter as it may develop a little more back-bow with the lighter string's with less tension. David Grissom plays 11's and because it's his sig. guitar, that's the way it ships; so a lot of people keep the 11's on it. The DGT I got used came with 10-46's and for grins I put 11's on it to see what the 11's were about (and in a day I needed to tweak the truss rod), lo-and-behold it was the only guitar I could play comfortably with 11's for some weird reason. To me, the 11's, being fatter strings, also gave the guitar a "bolder" presence in tone and voice. My move from my usual 10's to 11's was a smaller jump than your 8.0/8.5's. to 11's would be, to be sure. Play the string gauge that lets you play your best, and just do a little truss rod tweak if needed. Enjoy that DGT, they are amazing guitars.