Nix,
Do this when attempting to tune the strings on your double-
locking tremolo-equipped guitar:
1. loosen the locking nut (located before the first fret, the rectangular shaped area with 3 allen screws on), you can also remove the 3 screws and the pads until you get the guitar tuned right. If you decide to remove the pads and screws, remove one pad and screw at a time and place them somewhere safe in the same fashion as it was placed on the guitar
2. Loosen the fine tuners on the tremolo itself (round screws) so they are at half of their height (this will allow you to fine tune the guitar by once you have locked the nut)
3. plug your guitar into the tuner and commence to tune each string
4. insert your whammy bar into the tremolo (make sure the bar goes all the way in)
5. proceed to raise the bar all the way up gently and bring it back to neutral position (this is the easiest way to stretch the strings with a double-locking tremolo)
6. Check the tune on each string to see if the string needs to be retuned
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 until the guitar holds tune even after pulling on the bar all the way up gently, though you can use a little "BAM!" (emeril style) if you'd like
8. Once the guitar holds tune even after pulling on the bar or doing a divebomb and returning to neutral position, proceed to lock the nut by placing back the pads along with the allen screws
9. Hand tighten every screw and line the pads the same way they were before. Then, proceed to torque it with the
allen wrench that came with the guitar. When torqueing the allen screw, you don't have to super tighten it, tighten gently until the screw is tight enough (think of screwing a screw into bare wood, you don't want to tighten it so much that you strip the wood, right?, same concept)
10. check the tune on the guitar (it should still be tuned)
11. Play a chord and pull the whammy bar up a couple of times and do a couple of divebombs. If the guitar holds tune, then you're good to go and you can stop here. If it went out of tune a little, then proceed to the next step
12. Remember when you loosened the fine tuners to half their height? At this point the guitar is going to require minimal tuning to get it tuned, and that's what the fine tuners are for. Let's say your low E string went a little flat, then you would want to screw down the fine tuner to raise the pitch of the low E string. If the low E string went sharp, then you would loosen the fine tuning screw some more until you got it tuned
I hope these steps help you in getting your guitar tuned. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Jimmy
