The guitar in question was an el cheapo. It was just not a good neck. I haven't seen anyone make it stay in tune past fret 12, 3 people have tried.
Sorry, but I disagree with you partially on this one. Some guitars just suck ass and have bad necks, and there is nothing you can do except replace the neck or trash the guitar. This applies way more to the cheapies though..anything made halfway well should be able to be adjusted to stay in tune.
And yeah, I can setup my guitar fairly well, but I spend way too much time on other **** to get it perfect, so I take it to a pro..its a studio guitar so it doesn't tour.
on tour I had a killer tech..of course I played bass, and my basses were much nicer then my guitar collection.