Tuning Stability

[van Sinn]

Hi guys (girls?), first post here. This board has already consumed lots of my time, going through many a pinned FAQ great info..

I've been through a nof threads here'n'there about whammies, bridges, rollers, nuts.. related to stability.

I understand how strings can sit in the nut after bending, and likewise what can happen on the bridge. Still, quite some fixed bridge axes with ordinary nuts and tuners stay well in tune with severe bending.

My problem axe, an '87 Duesenberg Starplayer, is a kinda headless design, i.e. has a nut with six steel rollers with six string locks trailing behind on the headstock

The combined bridge/whammy/tuner feature independent saddles with crappy rollers cut with a V groove, plus the bridge tuners aren't made to tight specs.

I can't easily replace the bridge/whammy without fitting the headstock with tuners, which isn't easy, as the head angle is quite shallow.

Even with said crappy mashined parts, I can bend three notes with only a slight drop of pitch. The whammy is blocked for obvoius reasons; would like to be able to reengage it.

I'm designing better parts, but need input on which parts of a system is most influential to not staying in tune, especially referring to my axe.

Assuming I can fix the rollers (using stainless steel) and a few things on tuner presision, will a stainless or graphite/polymer zero-fret combined with a guiding nut work with the shown string locks? Or should I go with a graphite/polymer nut?

BTW, pics aren't possible in here, right?

[jaycee]

you can post one pic per post (unless it's a tutorial) and put links to the rest of them, if you want more than one , as far as I remember