Yes, the tunings thing irritates me, too... but some people seem to take forever finding out which string is out of tune, and de-tuning all the others to it!! ;o>

I tune entirely by ear myself, always have done, but I reckon I'm quicker than average - and lots of people agree with that opinion, as they hand their instruments over to me for tuning at a singaround!! Hah! I should charge them!

when I do a gig (two forty minute sets or more) I have loads of instruments with me - three or four guitars (12 string, six string standard, six string DADGAD and a classical), banjo, mandolin, accordion, English and Anglo concertinas. I don't necessarily use them all, because I tend to work 'on the fly' with a 'short list' rather than a 'set list'.

However, if I'm doing a 15-20 minute support, I'll usually just take a guitar and the accordion - or even do an unaccompanied set.

On the rare occasions I use PA, I don't plug any instruments in, but use a 'stereo pair' of microphones to cover the instruments, and a vocal mic. Sound men find this a doddle to set up and work with (really quick sound check!), and for me it's as easy as doing the gig unamplified. My day job is Sound Engineer...!

On the other hand, if it's a Ceilidh, I have a Microvox/Sennheiser radio system for my accordion... but that's a different thing altogether. It allows me to wander around and listen to the sound balance in different parts of the room - and spooks the audience!!