AxAxSxS wrote:My first love was a strat. I played that exclusively for years. Later I got into floyd equipped guitars. To me, they are easy to set up and worth the little bit of extra effort it takes. Tuning stability is perfect and I enjoy being able to go "BREEEOOoowww" Also trem equipped guitars have a different feel when bending notes and to me are easier to play. A trem equipped guitar just has more options on things you can do with it. I get that a lot of people don't want to put in the effort of getting used to them especially when they can allready play just fine with a hardtail. Using the trem and finding your guitar way out of tune afterwards sucks. there are ways of making sure that does not happen but there is a learning curve involved there.
With the 12's, there is a VERY limited supply of guitars that have usable trems. Obviosly Floyds are out, and good luck finding anything that has a decent setup. Jazzmaster trems and Bigsby style work ok, but lack the range of the better tremolo's. I modded the shit out of the Bigsby I have on the CHIckenbacker I have, added a sleeve so it would have more range, and individual posts for each string to have it's own anchor. It's still not ideal. Dillion hit a home run with the Strat style trem and locking tuners. I just don't like the shape of the guitar they put it on. Aesthetically, it's a good looking Rick'ish shape, but the horns are a pain in the ass and it's not well balanced. I'd love to have fine tuners like a Floyd has, but I'm not sure that's possible with the string spacing required on a 12.
So the SG inspired guitar I am building will have a strat style carve on the back, balance well, feel comfortable to hold with no stomach stabbing, and will have a strat style trem with locking tuners like the Dillion I fell in love with. It's a partial hollowbody with only the horn side hollowed out on the upper horn. I'm trying to maximize ass end weight and will use brass covers cut from a cymbal to add weight. Should be a rad guitar very soon!
I don't have tuning problems with my strat-style Babicz dong-bar. All you need is a non-stick nut, good tuners (locking preferred) and a properly set-up bridge. I think a Floyd Rose is an overcomplicated solution to a simple problem, which comes with a lot of baggage and potential for more problems.
I use 4 springs on my wang. Less I find is not effective. 4 or 5 will lock that shit down hard to the body and absolutely prevents tuning issues. Divebombs are just as doable on it, way down to the flubba whubba.
I'm gonna miss my floydie Iceman when I have to sell it. 
