Stratocaster tuning secret

[Lewguitar]

I'm a big fan of the angled claw and Carl's method of setting up a Strat's tremolo.

It works for me and it's easier than other methods.

I was flamed and insulted for posting that same video and for suggesting it over on the Seymour Duncan Forum.

Lots of guys insist they can achieve the same results without angling the claw.

Maybe they can.  Maybe they can't.

Maybe they can actually play the guitar.  Maybe they can't.

You never know who's for real and who's not on the internet.

The idea of Carl's method is to increase the tension of the springs on the bass side of the block.

Eric Johnson does something similar but achieves that goal by using four springs: three on the bass side and one on the treble side and he leaves out the spring that would be under the E/B string.

[harmonics]

i did that but my luthier told me it was not necessary

it is made to make some special bends with the bar like Jeff Beck

a tuning secret is to have a good nut
graphite for example
locking tuners like SPerzel
the same distance in  mm that the Jeff Beck signature has or to do carefully what the manual says in mm for the tremolo between the tremolo unit and the body to make all the effects with th bar as a floating tremolo
After that, there are not big problems except for the big big bends

[HarlowTheFish]

I like both, but for different reasons.
The Tele IMO is an incredible songwriting tool, especially if you get one without extra switching and stuff, because it gives you a good but simple palette of sounds that work well in basically every context without having too much stuff and giving you option paralysis.
The Strat on the other hand is more of a performance player, for when you have music that you want to pick up and play, because (IMO) it's a much more comfortable guitar that really just gets out of your way (especially the Superstrats and variants thereof I'm a big fan of). That's not to say a Tele is uncomfortable or hard to play, it's just that the slab body with no contouring and the different balance make it a lot more utilitarian.
In your shoes? I'd grab a higher-end Tele (the simpler design I think benefits from higher-quality woods and hardware a lot, and you'll be missing out in a cheaper model - American Standards are a pretty great model to go for) to use as-is and once I got comfortable with using it and wanted something a little different, I'd put together my own Strat. A good partscaster can be an incredibly versatile and personal instrument, and personally I think the Strat makes the best partscaster due to the sheer mountain of stuff you can put in them.
I will say too if you're an acoustic player you could pick up a used Am Standard and fit it with a piezo pickup to bridge the gap while you get used to it. I know you can find a few piezo-equipped Teles on Reverb pretty regularly.