The most trouble-free whammy is...

Thank you. I was waiting for it!

 

The one on my 2003 Burns Brian May. Strat style - 6 saddle modern two point and Grover locking tuners. Even with the shorter 24" scale, the guitar holds its tuning as well as any fixed bridge guitar I own.

Having said that, my late 80's MIJ Squier Strat (with a vintage style six point bridge) gives me no troubles - the secret is in the setting-up.

 

Very interesting and cool guitar!

 

Floyd Rose for me. I've been using Floyds for 36 years and don't need an education on pros or cons. All the talk about string changes & setup being difficult, painstaking, cumbersome...whatever negative you want to use, are overblown in my opinion. An extra couple minutes during a string change pale in comparison to the trade off of the tuning stability.

All that to say I currently only own one Floyd equipped guitar, don't use the bar anywhere near as much as years ago and get along just fine on a tele, LP, or a decked strat.

All, all that to say I have a sheltered life in regards to whammy bars...my Kramer & Floyd are 1988 model. I'd be all for a better locking system but haven't been inclined to buy another super-strat type guitar so I haven't tried anything else.

 

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I agree from personally experience this two post bridges are where it's at. I do love my jazzmaster tremolo although it has its little quirks

 

For stratocasters, I have found that the VegaTrem is an astoundingly excellent piece of engineering. It improves the sound of the guitar (others have stated that observation as well), keeps in tune better than all others I've tried (limited selection), and is a joy to use.

No, I don't get paid by VegaTrem.

I was blown away with how much this thing improved the guitar in so many ways.

The only thing of concern is if you are using it with light strings a full-tone bend will drop the pitch of the other strings. It's definitely not a deal-breaker though.

One of there best guitar devices I've ever bought in 60 years of playing. Worth every penny.

 

Any Fender designed vibrato can be set up to work great. I feel the Jazzmaster/Jaguar is the best system Leo devised. Never had luck with Bigsby vibratos.

 

I have a kahler 2700 series on a "star" body guitar I built in the 90's. Basically it's a Floyd Rose on steroids. That guitar sits in it's case for a decade and I can pull it out divebomb the hell out of it pull it up a perfect 4th and it will still be in tune. It won't look pretty on a semi hollow body guitar but it's the best Vibrato setup I've ever seen or used.

 

Parker Fly. It's why I started using 'em instead of my other guitars.

 

I've heard that the VegaTrem is the best Whammy.

I use a Super-V Bladerunner. It's pretty good, but not perfect. Recently, I saw some videos on the Wilkinson "Locking Saddles" that you may be interested in. Supposedly, they can be purchased through the Wilkinson Store on Reverb.com

Wilkinson Locking Bridge - it uses Allen screws to lock the strings at the Bridge. Simple design looks like it actually works. The Saddles supposedly can be used on vintage Fender Tremolos, etc. and can be purchased separately. The only saddles I could find was on Reverb, but they're insanely priced "Wilkinson WLS130 Locking Steel Saddles" at https://reverb.com/item/24879182-wilkinson-wls130-locking-steel-saddles

The best demo I could find on YouTube is titled "The ULTIMATE SADDLES? • Wilkinson WLS-130 Locking Saddles"

Some time ago, Pete Thorn was testing them, and liked them. He has a video as well: "WHAT'S UP WITH THAT BRIDGE ON YOUR BLUE SUHR? Pete Thorn/Suhr/Wilkinson"

 

After looking at all of the responses, I think you asked the wrong group to get out of your analysis paralysis....

 

I like my Trem King, which I compare here to the Strat and Bigsby trems:

 

Washburn tremolo I played on decades ago had a really nice string bridge bearing system that allowed the string to roll over with a locked nut. That was impressive for me but it did require maintenance to keep the bearing clean and oiled to allow for proper return. Was never out of tune, I also remember it being installed on the top of a solid guitar, not cut all the way through the body. - I could be remembering wrong


Also the Frankenstrat EVH had a quarter in a pivot point so that if he broke a string he could lock it under the bridge to keep it from being out of tune until he was able to get a his tech to bring him a new one.

pictured here: http://protocolguitarworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_1980.jpg

 

I personally love the Ibanez tremolo circa 1987 found on 540 Saber. Hard find pictures of mine anywhere, perhaps I'll take some pics and upload. Mine had the HSH in Desert Yellow with the original wizard neck before any shark tooth inlays were made. Still one of my all time favorite guitars.

 

I have a cheap bullet strat and I set it up easily enough to float and stay in tune. It works fine once you keep the nut and string trees lubed up.
And if you bend or pull up, just remember to reset it with a push down.

 

That's the one on my Gary Kramer Crusader Limited. It works great. The regular six-screw Fender trem on my '81 Strat works fine, too.

 

The bridge/vibrato combination on my Hallmark C60 is worth th price of the guitar all by itself. Easy to re-string and operates as smooth as silk.

 

I've not dealt with many of these, but I am familiar with the Fender strat. Not so much a fan of the original version, but the deluxe with pop-in bar is about the simplist and well engineered. Easy to setup and adjust with no springs to lose. Mo

 

The old Fender 6 screw trem works great when it's setup right(Van Halen first album for reference). The 2 point trems are easier to set up, but the best trem I ever had on a Fender type guitar was the Locking nut Kahler Tremolo. Super easy to setup and had smooth action.

The old B70 Bigsby on an arch top works great.

The JM/Jag trem is awesome. Some say the Mastery Bridge is best and some prefer the original with it's wobble effect.

The Duesenberg Les Trem is a thing of beauty. Smooth operation - easy set up - costs less than a Bigsby - built like a tank.

 

Kahler Spyder