I miss my tremolo...I'd even settle for a non-locking one just to accent some lead runs.Its a tool you can take for granted,but if you never learn to incorporate it into your playing then you wont be missing much.

That being said,yes a floyd will stay in tune better,but its not worth the trouble unless its an original floyd or high end ibanez copy...anything else is junk(except schaller or gotoh)

Stay away from epi's unless you want a 'dot' to play blues on or something...yuk!Suck it up and save for a LP studio or something.

And like prsplaya said,dont overlook schecters!