SE CU24 - 11-56 - Preparations?

[epoch]

Hi guys, I'm new. I got my first PRS last week -- a new 2014 SE Custom24 with a trem. Out of the box, it was strung with 9s and rather nicely intonated and all that (thank you Sweetwater) but barely even touching the trem knocks it out of tune. Sharp, always sharp. I've read thread after post after thread about this and it seems there's a general consensus that the nut is not-so-great.

I bought this (my 4th guitar) to be a dedicated heavy player, and I plan on leaving it in D standard or even drop-C, so I bought some D'Addario 11-56 strings. Now, I can tell just by looking at the nut that it wouldn't even handle tens, let alone these monstrous strings, so I went ahead and ordered a Graphtec Tusq which is sitting in the mailbox right now.

Long story short: Do you think I will have to mess with the truss rod with these strings? What about the trem system itself, will I need to adjust that?

 

[epoch]

Well, that was easy. I followed the typical guides online; scored the original nut edges, popped it off with a rubber mallet and block of wood, put the new Tusq nut on with a bit of watered-down wood glue, and put on the 11-56 strings. After they were up close to Drop-C I realized the trem needed some TLC because the back edge was now floating off the body quite a bit so I fiddled with the knife edge screws and tightened down the claw in side to pull it forward. Surprisingly -- amazingly -- I hardly had to adjust the intonation at all, which I guess must just be dumb luck that it was improperly intonated with the 9 guages on there.


Anyway, this thing is absolutely perfect now. I can't recommend these D'Addario XL117s enough. And with just the nut change, it doesn't go out of tune at all now.


They should make them this way from the factory.