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Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 14:12:27 -0500
From: Pat Missin
Subject: Re: Golden Melody tuning

Hambone wrote:
>
>What is the difference in the tuning of the GM as opposed to standard
>diatonics (SP20, Promasters, etc...)?

Golden Melodies are tuned in Equal Temperament (like a standard
chromatic), as are Lee Oskars and the Bushman Soul's Voice. The
tuning on ProMasters is a bit variable, but seems to be closer to ET
than anything else. ET seems to be the preferred tuning for most Far
Eastern-made harps. For a while, the old Hand Made Hohner
Meisterklasse was tuned in ET - in fact, I've even worked on a few
Marine Bands (from the 1980s) that were
as-near-as-makes-no-difference ET.

Traditionally, diatonic harmonicas were tuned in Just Intonation,
however over the past couple of decades, things have varied quite a
bit. Currently, Marine Bands and S20s are pretty close to JI, except
that the 5 and 9 draw tend to be a little sharper than they would be
in strict JI.

Hohner MS harps seem to use a sort of compromise temperament with a
more noticeably raised 5 draw. They also seem to be tuned somewhat
sharper than the Hand Made Hohners.

For the last few years, Hering diatonics (with the exception of the
Master Solo/Master Country) have all been in the traditional JI tuning
(with the very "flat" sounding 5 draw), but I believe they are
currently offering one model in ET - I don't recall which one offhand.

I've just checked an older Weltmeister Blackbird and it seems to be
tuned somewhere between Just and Equal. I also checked a couple of
Huang diatonics, but they've both been played quite hard and it's
difficult to make out how they were originally tuned.

For demonstrations of how these intonations actually sound, you might
want to check:

http://www.patmissin.com/tunings/tunings.html

Hope this helps,

-- Pat.