You can sweeten the temperament of a chromatic without going to the extreme of 7-limit just. As you note, this sweetens the chords and intervals, but severely limits the keys you can play in.
I like to sweeten the perfect fourths and fifth by tuning the upper note (G, G#, A Bb) in the fifth two cents sharp. However, this impacts those notes when used as a tonic note by pushing them slightly sharp, and eve more when they're the third in a major chord. 12TET puts these notes 14 cents sharp of an acoustically pure third, and now it's raised to 16 cents.
There's almost nothing you can do in tempering a harmonica that will not exact a cost - make one thing better and something else gets worse.
But sometimes the result is worth it, of you're willing to accept the cost.
Winslow
Lowering the thirds by 14 cents, however, is not a good idea for playing the instrument chromatically.
Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Resident expert at bluesharmonica.com
Harmonica instructor, jazzschool.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com
--- On Fri, 5/21/10, Cameron Gray <cameron.gray@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Cameron Gray <cameron.gray@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [Harp-L] Just Tuned Chromatics To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx Date: Friday, May 21, 2010, 5:31 AM
I was never very happy with the sound of chords on my chromatics beating away like a little drum.
I use lots of chords and tongue slaps in the Rod Piazza fashion.
So, as I only play them in third position decided to try 7LimitJI tuning them.
So set the tuner for D 7Limit for the draw reeds and C 7Limit for the blow.
To my ear its far better like this, much smoother and rich with no metallic overtones like the Equal tuned ones.
Haven't heard of anyone else doing this.
This will limit the chrom for 3rd position only, but most blues guys only do this anyway.
Also discovered an easier way to tune the blow reeds without taking the plates off.
Take the mouthpiece off and this allows access to the reeds through the front of the harp.
On straight tuned reed plates(older 64's and the 12 hole chroms) you can tape up the upper or lower chambers off that you're not tuning.
I use a little rotary tool, like a dremel for this. --