For me, its Locking Nut + Edge tremolo. . . . . or hardtail. NOTHING else will do, and here's why:
1. Every tuning issue with ANY guitar ive EVER encountered was not the fault of the bridge. It was always the fault of the string snagging in the nut, or on a string tree.
2. The string tree issue is easy to fix. . . simply remove or dont use them.
3. Snagging at the nut is a hard problem to fix. I hear all the time "Oh, just get a graphite nut and
locking tuners and you'll be good." Well. . . ok, ive tried that on my Charvel. Its far from bulletproof. While a graphite nut is more "slick" than a bone or plastic nut, it mellows the tone a bit and STILL snags the string on occasion. I was dissapointed after dropping $100 on a graphite nut on my charvel, only to find that it worked about 50% as good as I expected. Only nut that wont snag when the string goes back and forth are the rolling nuts.
4. The rolling nuts are a great idea, but. . .they seem to kill tone and sustain. I had a Charvel Model 3 with a Kahler traditional tremolo, and the rolling saddles killed sustain. In a perfect world, the Kahler design was pretty good, but in the real world, they were not durable. After a while, the saddle rollers got loose, to the point where the movement of them would kill tone and sustain. Any moving rolling part seems to hinder the transfer of energy from the string to the body, choking resonance.
5. Behind-the-nut locks. I had one of these on my Charvel. . . .it almost made me crazy. The Behind the nut locks are not nearly as good as a locking nut, and aren't a direct replacement. It prevents the string from moving back and forth behind the nut. . . but it doesn't address the biggest problem: the nut snagging on the string, hanging you out of tune. Then, once your out of tune, you cant compensate with the tuner, because the locking nut prevents you! They seem borderline rediculous to me because of their self defeating nature.
6. You can make a graphite nut work, if you lube it with graphite paste (Vasiline with mashed pencil lead in it) and dab a toothpick tip amount on each string groove and have the nut grooves adjusted to be comfortably larger than the strings that go in it, but not too large that you get unwanted side-to-side action which can make you out of tune and hurt intonation. You can make it work for some moderate whammy stuff, but why bother with that when you can have a locking nut.
7. Locking tuners dont lock in place, they simply grab onto the string once you put it though the spindle, holding it tight so you dont have to wrap the string around and around. You can though, if you want to, and it will help you make nice and tidy little string coils around the tuner spindle. A tidy winding is a secure winding. If your string is overlapped and crossed over on the spindle, its not going to be very secure as far as tuning is concerned. They cut down slighly on tuning instablitity, but for me, I think their main advantage is the easy string changing.
8. A locking nut grabs the string right at the end so there is literally no room for the string to flex and snag between the nut and the lock pad. If the parts are in good working order and not corroded or worn down, then the design is pretty much bulletproof. Not only does it hold your tuning togeather, it actually prevents you from slamming it out of tune. I can wail on my RG's and have them always come back to perfect tuning. I usually only have to do a major tune up once a month or so, I only encounter minor tuning issues that can be instantly fixed with the quick tweak of a fine tuner, which is usually just turning the high-E's fine tuner a quarter turn. The tuning stability of the
Edge tremolo system is one of the big things I love about it.
9. I like the way the Edge and locking nut sound. They add a bit of clarity and edge to the tone, and sound very smooth and even. The warbly effect you get from strumming hard or hitting the guitar or bar is really cool, and ads a very cool twang to the sound that I'm addicted to. I have a very percussive playing style, so this works out great for me. I like the Edge/Floyd design more than other tremolos because it locks down the string, forcefully preventing them from slipping, and it moves easier and smoother than any other tremolo, and has a greater range of pitch change.
10. Ive gone the whole graphite nut route, Ive gone the whole Behind the nut lock route, Ive done Vintage tremolos, and Im DONE. If I play a guitar, it has to have an Edge or good quality Floyd Rose, or. . . its a hardtail. I hate tuning, and I REALLY hate being OUT of TUNE, and I just dont want to deal with it anymore, and I dont have to thanks to my RG550s.
