The chopped up part most likely refers to the intro and outro of his solo where there's multiple guitar lines playing at once.
I like the track, but then again I'm also a huge Polyphia fan as well and you really cannot deny that Tim and Scott are the leaders of the next generation of guitar...
I see a lot of people bringing in very inconvenient solutions just to avoid the truth - you have to adapt your picking.
Use whatever gauge you use for drop C, the 'trick' is to adapt your picking style to ensure the string doesn't whack out of tune when you play it, you can't whack a .046 in E...
Definitely rolled fretboard edges like said previously! Old 60-70's guitars sometimes also have fretboards that look similar to this but from actual playing wear.
There is no string spacing issue. The neck is just slightly misaligned/tilted towards the treble side. Easy fix by taking the strings off, loosening the neck screws, aligning it and tightening the screws again.
No hype. Expensive strings that feel rough to the touch and lasts about 2 days longer than their XL range. I say this as a diehard d’addario fan who switched to Elixir Optiwebs due to them crushing everything else out there in tone and longevity.
I don't think OP realises that autotuning/tuning vocals is pretty much standard practise in any production
OnT: Song is alright, but I'm definitely biased towards the older Maiden so my opinion is moot
Re the 87's tuning issues replace the trem springs and see if you can replace the locking blocks in the trem. There's no reason it shouldn't stay in tune after that.