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I have a Tele that I want to try heavier strings on.
I think there are light top/ heavy bottom on there now
(just got the guitar back from an old roommate) which is
cool, but I want to try and get more of baritone sound out of
it.
The bridge does string through the body so I think that adds
enough length to safely put on heavier strings.

Thoughts, suggestions, how low can I go?

It's all about the nut. (LOL)

You can probably go to 13's pretty easy but any bigger and you'll have to file the nut to avoid pinching and tuning issues.

The extra tension is going to require a truss adjustment too, so make sure you have a turn or so left on the truss before you swap em on. Or just drop the tuning.

TweedBassman wrote:It's all about the nut. (LOL)

You can probably go to 13's pretty easy but any bigger and you'll have to file the nut to avoid pinching and tuning issues.

The extra tension is going to require a truss adjustment too, so make sure you have a turn or so left on the truss before you swap em on. Or just drop the tuning.

13s are the ish. Never had a Tele, but I've put them on a strat as well as an epi dot, and they rock the hizzy. But you're almost definitely going to need to give your truss rod a twist.

Figured on the truss adjust; how low on the bottom do you guys think is realistic before major
modifications need to happen?

Phengren Oswald wrote:Figured on the truss adjust; how low on the bottom do you guys think is realistic before major
modifications need to happen?

My Dot has a .13-.62 set that I keep tuned to drop C. It seems to keep intonation just fine for me. I did have to take a bit of sandpaper to the nut for the low C, but that's it for mods other than a quarter twist of the trust rod.

Phengren Oswald wrote:Figured on the truss adjust; how low on the bottom do you guys think is realistic before major
modifications need to happen?

Depends on how low you tune and how you like your action. If you tune it like a baritone 13-62 will be fine.

expect to file some on the nut slots.

bigchiefbc wrote:

TweedBassman wrote:It's all about the nut. (LOL)

You can probably go to 13's pretty easy but any bigger and you'll have to file the nut to avoid pinching and tuning issues.

The extra tension is going to require a truss adjustment too, so make sure you have a turn or so left on the truss before you swap em on. Or just drop the tuning.

13s are the ish. Never had a Tele, but I've put them on a strat as well as an epi dot, and they rock the hizzy. But you're almost definitely going to need to give your truss rod a twist.

So I'm a bit of a moron regarding truss rods; the Tele has the truss accessible from the headstock so which direction would turn, clockwise or counter?
And, is safe to just do a 1/4 turn or is there a bit more finesse.

I'm thinking about just slapping a .62 and a .46 on in the E and A slots and tuning the E to an A but leaving everything else standard.
Any weird intonation trickery I should consider or anything?

Thanks, folks, for your input by the way....

Fine tuning the intonation at the bridge (if it's a sort of bridge that allows that) might be necessary for drop A, but in my experience most guitars play pretty ok with stuff like that as long as you use a thick gauge and get decent tension.

try the not even slinky cobalts
i had probs cause i didnt file the nut
and the cheap tunomatic had some edges
that bound em up
roller bridge fixed that for me
i dont think your gonna have that problem
but heavies are so good

Phengren Oswald wrote:
So I'm a bit of a moron regarding truss rods; the Tele has the truss accessible from the headstock so which direction would turn, clockwise or counter?
And, is safe to just do a 1/4 turn or is there a bit more finesse.

I'm thinking about just slapping a .62 and a .46 on in the E and A slots and tuning the E to an A but leaving everything else standard.
Any weird intonation trickery I should consider or anything?

Thanks, folks, for your input by the way....

Turn the truss rod clockwise to tighten (straighten) it. Just go a 1/4 turn at a time, then tune up the guitar and see how the neck looks and feels to you. Loosen the strings to turn the rod again. I like a really straight neck. The other thing I'll say is that I modded the nut on one of my guitars to accommodate big strings and now I can't really put regular sized strings on it (by regular I mean 10's). Just something to keep in mind.