Intonation adjustment

I just recently aquired a Pantera w a bendmasterdeluxe bridge. It appears to have .008's on it and I will be upping the string gage to .011's and expect the intonation to change and need adjustment.

I've not used a bendmaster before, but at first glance it appears the adjustment screw is directly under the string and before the saddle. Is this correct? If so, how is one expected to adjust it when string is at full tension?

Welcome to a world where patience is not a virtue but a requirement; the intonation on a BD is done by tuning up, then seeing where the 12th fret note is (flat/sharp), and then detuning a bit, loosening off the Allen head bolt and moving the entire saddle in the right direction. Whereupon you retune and find out how close - or not!! - you're getting.

That's it - not rocket science, is it!! Just fiddly and irritating, because each time you change string gauge/make, you go through the performance again... that said, generally once set, it is rock solid!! You're gonna need more springs too, possibly - I've found that with 11s 4 springs is about right and it's a bit fiddly to get the bridge floating properly as well, but no more irritating than an early FR, or so I'm told!

Make sure that the saddles are in the right order, too - they are non-adjustable and are set to the fretboard radius, so if you want to change the action to be higher, you use the 2 bridge posts.

Thanks for the info
In the long run I was thinking of making the bridge set not to float. So if I continue to use the same brand/gage of strings hopefully I won't have to adjust intonation often (although I am obsesive with tuning and intonation, so we'll see)

Can't wait to get it all set up and crank it up loud this weekend! Good thing the neighbors don't live to close