Dumb questions about restringing and retuning a Spectrum FX

I recently won an eBay auction for a Silverstone Spectrum FX which requires a tiny bit of attention. I do however have some questions about restringing and retuning a guitar with the Bendmaster bridge.

I presume that I have to slacken off the string locks to take off the old strings, fit the strings and then tighten up the string locks once I've got the guitar basically in tune.

How tight should I tighten the string locks ?
- Finger tight
- A bit tighter than that
- As tight as they'll go without breaking anything

Once the strings are locked down, should I then do all tuning at the bridge end or should I slacken off the sting locks each time I play, tune and re-tighten and only use the bridge tuners mid-gig ?

I generally take the top plates right off when re-stringing, and put all six strings on before replacing the plates. I don't tighten them - the plates - down yet, though as they'll need time to settle down and I'd rather do all the major tuning with the machine heads; even though the fine tuners are markedly longer than the Deluxe ones, they are just that - fine tuners!

Do your string stretching or whatever it is that you do to get the strings to return to pitch, more or less, and then I leave it overnight just to settle down properly.

The next day i will retune if necessary and then tighten down the bolts.... only enough to ensure that the strings will not move at all; over-tighten these things at your peril!! A longer bolt in the E/A is a good move as in the Deluxe stringlock, there are only about 2 threads catching and those "in the know" replace the stock ones with ones about 2-3mm longer.

A dab of Nut Sauce, or your lube of choice, in the nut slots, on the knife edges and on the saddles is beneficial, too....

Once the strings are "played in", you shouldn't need to re-tune other than with the fine tuners but if you run out of adjustment then off with the relevant lock plate, centre the fine tuner and re-tune and lock it all down.

I found a Göldo Backbox in the trem cavity helps an awful lot with tuning stability but that said, I've never been a huge user of the wang bar and really, if you tend to thrash the daylights out of it, I'm unsure of how the FT will cope... should be Ok if it's properly set up, eh?!

What John said!

Tuning should remain very close to pitch, but it will vary a bit as all guitar tunings do, even without the trem/lock nuts. But if you're a manic dive bomber, all bets are off. Nut sauce will help but be prepared for some on-going fiddling.  

Do be sure and stretch the newly wound strings on their posts, as Johnny says, before locking things down (gently!)/ The better settled they are the easier it will go.

One final consideration: If you change string gauge, be prepared to also adjust the spring tension on the sustain bar to compensate.

Thank you - job now done as suggested.