Les paul and string gauge

Hello everyone out there, got a hopefully a simple question that hopefully has a simple answer...

I have a gibson les paul with .009-.042w gibson vintage reissue strings on it now, they sound great and everything a little light for my taste. Ive been experimenting with different strings and gauges. Also I notices my bridge needs some attention with the strings off of it...The bolt on the low E side has been lifted soo the bridge is at a slant...Not sure how it got that way or how long its been like that. Its intonation is solid soo I just mainly want to level that out.

Back to topic at hand...for a les paul is their a gauge that would create too much tension on the neck....Ive been looking at .011 gauge flat wounds...going from .009 to.011..Is that to big of a difference???

going from 9s to 11s isn't a huge deal, you just have to compensate by adjusting the truss to keep the neck playability the same as it was. There's lots of sites on how to go about doing this, here's my favorite ones to use:
http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/truss.htm
http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/trussrods

If you feel that you don't trust yourself doing this on a high end guitar, shops will do it for you, but it is a very lengthy thing to do since the changes won't take place completely until 24-36 hours after you make them. Also I don't know how much a shop will charge for it, since I've never needed to take my guitar in to get anything done by them.

Hope this helps :)

Gibson,
your bridge is supposed to be higher on the Low E side. The low E needs more room to vibrate than the high e. If you get it too close it will buzz.
Neil

It depends. All guitars are made different and some stronger than others. Going from 9s to 11s on a LP shouldnt make that big of a difference but the only way to do it is to try. I would do it but change each string one at a time and once you are done see what it's like. And like case211 says wait a couple of days and see if it's the same. If the height and intonation is off enough, you'll know.

Forgot to add, that you may need to get the nut filed out a bit more, or just throw a new one on if the difference is too much...don't know though, I've never really put 11s on a guitar and paid much attention.