Chromatic Tuning System
I Love the Seydel Saxony, which
I inherited mine from a friend
as far as action / response, Tone, Slide goes.I Really prefer the Seydel
to the Hohner
(*gasp* *choke* HERESY)
However the Octaves on the Saxony are noticibly out of tune.
They are much closer with my Hohner 270 super Deluxe
I spent about a week transfering my octave embouchure to the very slightly larger Seydel spacing,
so I'm positive it's not my embouchure.
My Questions are :
Will a perfectly tuned Equal temperment chromatic Harp give sweet , intune octaves, and I just have a poorly tuned harp
Do Hohner Chromonicas use a special tuning to get mostly intune octaves
Is Seydel known for shipping harps that are out of tune enough to make Octaves beat like a drunken redneck (appologies to all the drunken rednecks out there)
Is Octave playing considered a special technique specific to the Blues and Jump and Swing styles?
I'm not looking forward to That much retuning on a steel reed chromatic without a Zajac French Tuner.
I really do prefer the Saxony to the Hohner
Thanks Everyone
Greg
You always want your octaves to be in tune, and they're often not in tune on individual chromatics, regardless of manufacturer. It's possible that yours came that way from the factory or was played out of tune by the previous owner. The reasons don't matter that much – you want a harp that's in tune.
Octaves are used in many styles of music, not just blues. Even if you don't play octaves, you don't want out-of-tune notes. And if an octave is not in tune, then neither is one, or even both, of the notes involved.
I'm not sure the French tuner will work with chromatic reedplates, where blow and draw reeds are mounted side by side. Also, Seydel spaces their reeds farther part than Hohner on both diatonics and chromatics. Ask Andrew Zajac about these issues before you buy.
You can tune draw note just by removing the covers. For blow notes you do need to disassemble the reedblock (reedplates and comb) but you can always test tuning by holding the reedplates to the comb by using the covers to clamp them in place.
Use equal temperament, and tune to A442 or even higher. Test the reeds that sound like they're in tune to determine what the overall tuning of the harmonica is, and tune any other notes to that pitch standard.