The trick with tuning is to make it unobtrusive. If you can tell a story or warm up the introduction over it then fine. Martin Carthy gets away with it because he reads his audience, is funny, laughs at himself, talks over his tuning and has made it an integral part of his 'act' as a perfectionist Most people seeing him for the first time remember him as 'the bloke always tuning'. That, and the resulting song/tune is mindblowingly amazing. There are others as famous who could learn a thing or two from Mr Carthy, because they just look like egotistical pratts who couldn't read an audience if it were in large print. I have never heard Martin request silence in the middle of a gig so he can tweak a tuning peg....

LTS