Tremolo issues on the new Ibanez

I love my new Ibanez. It's a stunning instrument and a fantastic guitar to play. Something happened recently, though, that's frustrating the hell out of me.

Damn thing won't stay in tune.

It has the Edge III tremolo that I've learned is much-maligned. Apparently, they give many Ibanez players fits and many of those end up replacing them with other tremolos, if they don't end up just getting rid of the guitar. The problem I'm having is that every time I push the bar down and release it, all the strings go flat. Really flat, like a full semi-tone. When I pull up on the bar and release it, all the strings go sharp. Another full semi-tone. If I move the bar around I can find the sweet spot again, but any kind of string bend (which also tilts the tremolo forward as if I were pushing down the bar) puts all the strings flat again. It's become unplayable.

I've tried everything I know to get it back to a playable state, but so far I've been unsuccessful. I found a few online resources (I even joined an Ibanez forum at Jemsite.com) and I'm going to try again, but if that doesn't work I have a serious decision to make.

I can bring it to a tech and see if he can't get it to work, which will cost some money but if it makes the guitar playable again, it would be worth it. I can see about replacing the tremolo with another kind. From what I've read, an Original Floyd Rose is a drop-in replacement, which, again will cost some money but would be an excellent upgrade.

I have one more option that is more time-sensitive: I have 30 days to return the guitar to Guitar Center for an exchange. I really don't want to go through the whole process of finding a guitar (again), although much of the work has been done already. Unfortunately, most of the guitars that ended up at the head of the Short List were Ibanez guitars with the same Edge III tremolo. Maybe I got a bad one, but if they have a bad reputation maybe I should stay away from them.

This problem started happening after a small set screw fell out of the tremolo. I noticed something rattling around near the springs and found a tiny screw (a few millimeters tops) that came from somewhere, but I couldn't find anywhere for it to go. I don't know if it's causing all these issues, but it is entirely possible.

This sucks. I thought by getting a locking tremolo I'd eliminate these issues. I know I need a guitar with a tremolo, but really, this reinforces why I hate them so much! For the record, the Jackson licensed Floyd Rose on my old Charvel never acted like this. That thing would stay in tune for weeks with just a little fine-tuning every once in a while.