The use of the highly developed quartz tuning fork as a gas friction vacuum gauge is well known. In this paper we refer to new aspects which confirm the versatility of the tuning fork concept, namely: (A) The proper choice of the oscillator and measuring circuits allows constant vibration amplitude and fast response time over the whole pressure range, and gives flexibility concerning compensation of disturbing effects (temperature, etc.), correction of the output characteristic (e.g. logarithmic) and direct digitalisation. (B) In processing two output signals of the tuning fork oscillator, namely the series resistance and the resonance frequency, the effects of pressure and contamination can be separated. (C) The combination of the tuning fork gauge with other gauges can reduce further effects: As the Pirani gauge has an inverse dependence of the molecular mass than the tuning fork gauge, it is possible to build a combination with reduced gas dependence.