This is just as much for any other casual reader of this thread as it may be for Dave H:
Hello? Like, everyone. The SE Custom 24 trems are the worst! Play a crappy Squire strat and the trem is useable. SE 24? POS. Useless. Worse than useless because it de-tunes the whole guitar. So, um, Mintzer, do own or have every played the guitar in question?
Like what others have said about their SE trems, I don't have any issues with the trem on my SE Akerfeldt, which should be otherwise identical to any other SE trem. It behaves the same as the trem on my (core) CU24 - stays in tune after bends and dive bombs and wiggles, etc.
It is possible something else other than the trem itself is wonky or needs adjusting (like widening the nut slots for bigger strings - yes, I read below, not your case) - or perhaps it is something with the trem set-up, like the knife-edge screws, that someone might have adjusted prior to you obtaining your guitar (there is a slim possibility I suppose that they may need adjustment from the factory, and didn't get adjusted/setup properly).
Sorry to all for my "POS" remark. Shawn, the brass seems to be in the individual bridge string saddles. I filed down the front corner of the low "E" string saddle so it would be more confortable for my palm muting. What I found underneath sure looked like brass.
I think as Shawn/others pointed out, the saddles might be brass, but the block is not, on SE trems.
Never changed the string gauge, trem would detune guitar with just a whole step bend - right out of the box. That's not "dive bombing".
Although unlikely, I will mention: You never changed the strings, but it is possible that whatever dealer you dealt with could have done something, including change the strings. Do you have a caliper to measure the string gauge?
I think if you take it back to the store you bought it at (if you bought locally) or just take it into a good local guitar shop, you might find there is something that can be done to correct your issue. Yeah, maybe it's a bad nut from the factory, or maybe the trem set-up got out of adjustment somehow from the factory setup.
Did you try something like Nut Sauce? I've never used it, but I've seen it suggested in many places...
Just a few suggestions. It must be frustrating, but I don't think the issues with bad nuts, etc, are as widespread as they may seem. The people with the problem will say something, those not having a problem will not have anything to say until a thread like this pops up and we're all like "huh? What nut problem?" Yeah, the SE nut could be better, but I understand why PRS chose to configure it the way they did - every tiny bit helps in getting to an affordable cost, and if they saved 50 cents doing that, and 50 cents in thirty nine other places, that's $20 material cost reduction - and that probably turns into $50 or more of the price. Maybe PRS should consider swapping over to the same nut as the US models, and if their cost delta is truly only 50 cents, they could charge $1 more and maybe the complaints would go away...or maybe they wouldn't...
