I bought a 2011 MIM standard strat neck with locking tuners off of ebay to replace the neck on my 2005 MIM strat. I prefer .10s as far as strings go and had a bone nut put on the old neck which was cut for that gauge. I'm assuming replacing the neck should be fairly simple, but I'm wondering if I will have problems putting .10's on the new neck with the stock nut? I've only just begun tinkering with things and wouldn't be comfortable filing the nut down myself.
New MIM Teles are equipped with .09/.42 strings. I just bought an FSR/ MIM Tele about 4 month ago and immediately switched over to .10/.46 strings. No issues no problems. I think you'll be just fine. At the very worst, if you get a string or two that binds and goes "ping" when tuning just swipe the nut slot a few times (it doesn't take much) with a piece of folded lite grit sandpaper and lubricate. You can get a small tube of nut lubricant at GC. It goes a long way.
Here's a tip about nut filing just in case you ever get around to trying it. Even though I've done it many times on occasion I may go just a little bit to far. No problem. Being careful not to get any on your guitar (mask the area) apply a small drop of Super Glue to the over filed nut. The glue shrinks a lot and if you have only filed a little to deep there is usually no need for refiling. You can sand the top of the nut after it's dry to get rid of any minor excess glue.
New neck is on and seems to fit and nut slots don't seem to be a problem, but my high E is further away from the edge of the fretboard than before. I have an upgraded Callaham bridge which is a direct replacement for MIM strat so I'm not sure whats going on. The string is centered on the saddle and the spacing seems even at the nut. I may just take it to a tech since I'm just starting to learn how to set my guitar up. Lost my feeler gauges so used a business card under the 8th fret while first and last fret held. Seemed it a little too much space so I gave the truss rod a 1/4 turn tweak. Still getting mild fret buzz. The neck is new so the frets show no wear whatsoever.
Yeah I think I will. I've been wanting to get a liberator pot installed so I can swap pickups myself so might as well have that done as well. I'd still like to learn how to solder though.
