Having read through some of the muzzle device threads I'd thought I would post up my experience on mounting a Surfire SOCOM762 to my 17S. In a nutshell, easy. used an AR15 armorers tool to grab the existing PWS break and a crescent wrench to grab the locking nut. Little bit of effort and it dismounted without issue. The SF break comes with a space that has an inner chamfered edge on one side. You place the spacer on first with that chamfered side point toward the muzzle. This way you get a decent abutment to the minuscule barrel shoulder. Then figure out your shims to properly time the brake, clean the threads, apply rockset, reattach and torque as required. All in all pretty easy. As has been mentioned before you can vise the barrel with a simple jig of wood vise inserts that have a V notch <> or semicircles () cut to bite the barrel. I then use a Super Black pen to kill the shine of the spacers.
HTH.