I'd probably get a Sweet Sixteen and a "suspender" system (see
http://www.jennoop.com/suspenders.html ), mostly because the SS has been out a long time and consistently gets really good reviews.
Of course it's possible to do well without a stitch regulator; the problem for me would be the amount of time it would take me to get that good! I figure at my age, my most valuable commodity is time. So I would get the stitch regulator just so my quilting would look good right off the bat.