John,
I used a Meade 12" Lx200, mounted on the HD wedge and cut-down HD tripod for a few years.....
IMHO a good OAG is definitely the way to go. The Meade OAG is hopeless, but the Celestron or the Telescope Service sliding mirror version are good.
I started with the Lumicon Giant Easy guider (No longer available??)
http://www.lumicon.com/store/c/47-Ea...r-Systems.aspx
HTH