Something else I just thought of... if you were playing a hard tail Gibson and went to a Strat -the first thing you'd notice is when you pull a bend the whammy works against you, meaning you have to work harder to get the same bend. Strat players compensate - some (like Jeff Beck) have turned the whammy into an art by hooking it with his pinky at (nearly) all times when soloing - lets him increase/decrease bends with the whammy bar note-by-note.