I am analyzing matrices of functions and am not getting a very clear visual of the tick marks when I export my graphs in mathematica 9. I have a frame with vertical axes displaying separate values. The ticks and values change with every function, but I want to be able to change the ticks dynamically to make them thicker and longer for each function.

I have been playing with the AbsoluteOptions trying to get this worked out, but every example is based on adjusting the ticks on known axes values. It's hard for me to differentiate between major and minor ticks in the output of the AbsoluteOptions, so maybe even just an explanation on that would be a good start. Sorry if this isn't terribly clear, but it really isn't reasonable to paste my code in here. I love the math, but hate the graphics and visualization. This is really holding me up.