I recently got a SEIKO ST-747 for tuning our clavichord. I have to admit that I do slip it into my room and tune my guitar with it. I think it is very accurate and easy to use; however it is definitely not for use in a performance situation. It has no background lighting and there is no convenient way to fasten it to (or ever near) the guitar.

I have noticed one funny phenomenon. This gadget shows when you are off by cents. 20 cents looks like a huge swing on the (lcd imitated) meter. Yet I can't hear 20 cents. It sort-of gives you a distorted idea of tuning. It reminds me of when digital watches first came out. A friend of mine got one and one day I ran into him in the hallway pacing up and down looking at his watch. When I said "hello" he said "the b---rd is 59 seconds late!! It seems he has an appointment with somebody. I don't know if he believed me when I told him that with his old watch 59 seconds would have seemed a trivial, if even noticably degree of lateness.

One related item. The tuners described here seem to all be chromatic (including mine). I am sure these are tuned to a well-temered scale whereas the guitar is tuned to an equal tempered scale. Because of this, once you tune your strings to the tuner, you will find that some fretted notes are a few cents off and with these meters it looks like a lot. Don't get worried that your guitar has faulty intonation. (Of course, if you want to start really picking nits, you should have never tuned your strings well-tempered anyway ;-}

Murray