I've used this tuner for about 7 years, which is most of the time I've spent playing guitar. I like the fact that this tuner is small, portable, and easy to use. It's also easy to use with acoustic guitars since it has a microphone that is built-in, which will work pretty well. That being said, sometimes it's difficult to use in live situations; if you gig you might want to look into a pedal tuner, as that would probably be less susceptible to noise. Even with electric guitar, the Ga-30 can get pretty tough to manage in loud environments. Even though amateurs will tell you that once you're plugged in, the microphone stops picking up noise, that's not really the case. The mic still interferes with the signal. Basically, this tuner is great as long as it stays at home. It's cheap enough that it's pretty much worth the extra cost; why bother taking the pedal out and setting it up if you only need it once a day? As far as these handheld tuners go, Korg tends to make pretty reliable ones so there's no really bad purchases to be made if you buy one of theirs. However, this one is my favorite because in addition to the microphone, it will play the pitches you need if you'd rather tune by ear, and it also can tune the guitar as far as 5 semitones flat (or anywhere from E to B). It works just as well on bass (but again, only when there's not a lot of interference), which makes it handy if you need to pass it around before practice. I definitely would tell anybody who needs a reliable tuner for home use to pick up one of these. It's no gem, but it does the trick.