HI All,
I've had my duo jet a couple of weeks now, & loving playing it to bits.

It came with a set of .10 strings, which I've been giving a good twonking! To my mind they are a bit loose feeling & I think a set of 49-11s will probably suit my style of playing & not to mention the migrating the floating bridge lot better!

I would think that the increase in tension from going from 10s to 11s would need a bit of truss rod adjustment. Normally I leave this kinda thing to folk who have some skills in this dept, but would like to be able to do this myself really.

So I'm looking for any good advice here, i.e. just how much of a turn is it likely to take (with a bit of experimentation). I'm familiar with lubing my nut- har har!

Put a capo on at the 1st fret, press the low E string down where the neck joins the body (17th fret on most guitars), try to slide a business card (or if you have feeler gauges, the 0.010") in between the fret & the string at the 7th-9th frets. If there's too much clearance you'll need to tighten the truss rod by turning the key clockwise, if there's too little clearance you'll need to loosen it (turn the key anticlockwise).

Use a marker to make a dot on the truss rod before you start so you always know where it was before you made adjustments & can revert to it if need be.

If the truss rod won't turn, don't jerk it or force it, you may damage or break something. Go see a tech if it feels like it won't turn any more.

Always do small adjustments, 1/4-1/8 turns at a time, leave it sit for a few hours (or better, overnight) and check it all again. :)



Now as for your actual question, it's different with every guitar (every bit of wood is different) but I would say it wouldn't be more than 1/4 turn since you're only going up one gauge... you may not have to adjust it at all.

Thankyou Tara, that really is exactly the step by step advice I hoped for. I'll let you know how I get on in a few days.

Glad to help :) truss adjustments aren't nearly as hard as people make them out to be!

Looking forward to hearing how you got on :D

Yep, what Tara said. Excellent advice. It's possible no adjustment may be needed. With the maple necks Gretsch uses, they don't move much, unless of course you went way up in string gauge.

Yep, what Tara said. Excellent advice. It's possible no adjustment may be needed. With the maple necks Gretsch uses, they don't move much, unless of course you went way up in string gauge.

I went from 10's to VERY Stiff 12's without adjustment. So I doubt you will need to adjust much (would be surprised if at all)

I moved from 10's to 11~49 without any adjustments. 10's felt floppy and buzzed a lot with my stock bridge. I moved up to 11's and most of the buzzing went away - got rid of the rest of the buzzing with a compton bridge upgrade.

Nice advice Tara :)