Setting guitar string action

[Fantastic_Mad]

Yo, everyone, I'm thinking about putting on a thicker guage string on my strat, and I know you might have to adjust the action for them because of fret buzzing (this isn't one of those crybaby questions, I don't think). So my question is, is there any rule of thumb in setting action? Is there a sweet spot for pickups and string height that gives you optimal volume? Will raising the action of my strings give me less volume because they will be farther away from the pickups? Any info would be great, thanks in advance.

call a local music shop

[Tom Hicks]

Try this

http://www.mrgearhead.net/faq/stratsetup.html

[Evildick]

ditto to what Tom said.

The hardest problem I have is adjusting the damn truss rod. The rest is pretty much cake.

[Phyl]

Don't forget to check your intonation after everything is said and done, or have a luthier do it. Going to a larger gauge often causes the intonation to go out the window.