bax

Wally Carroll made me one in 1/5 comma meantone with the wolf at G#/D# and meeting A=440 at D. It's lovely, plays well with others, and the major thirds are juuust enough prettier for me to notice. I'll see if I can tack on a pic with the details. ... The wolf interval is not available on the instrument anywhere

There's no need to be mysterious. Who are you, and what instrument are you referring to?

I took Brenda's class at the St Louis Tionol this year. She is indeed an excellent teacher - we had a wide range of levels and she still had something for everybody. It was a fun class and very helpful to see up close how she was playing. I particularly appreciated that if you sound the instrument at inappropriate times, she will give you The Look. If you don't stop, she will Have A Pointed Word. I assume that after that comes The Boot but we never reached that point

good troll

This tune I'd play in A minor because it's easiest on main rows of C/G and has most options for chording. Also you can play in the middle octave across both hands, or the upper octave to leave the left free for accompaniment. I wouldn't do an oompah bass, that doesn't fit it to my ears either. Maybe some drones and occasional chords for punch.

To put it a different way, here is how the triads sound: Ab garbage (major and minor) - can't physically be played on my instrument Eb major is good, minor is off Bb major is good, minor is off F major is good, minor is off C major and minor are good G major and minor are good D major and minor are good A major and minor are good E major and minor are good B minor is good, major is off F# minor is good, major is off C# minor is good, major is off G# see Ab

To a degree, yes. All the fifths are the same except the wolf, so C+G and D+A pairs sound the same, a hair flat of 3/2 - the wonky fifth D+A is the major source of the horribleness of any D triad in just tuning. The major and minor thirds are all equivalent in the central five keys (C,G,D,A,E on my instrument). F and Bb major, B and F# minor keys are edge cases depending how you harmonize. Ab is unusable (wolf fifth) and for the same reason Eb has a wonky IV and C# a wonky V chord so you would want to avoid those keys too I think.

Haha, yeah, I can't tell the difference in the A in an Irish session type of environment. I do try to give people a D if they ask to tune though. The tuning I'm using is most different from ET at C# (4 Hz beat) and especially G# (7 Hz beat). I like the flattish C# but yeah you could get closer to ET for D+G keys by basing at A and compromising the E flat instead.

I have hated the equal tempered major thirds for decades. I asked Wally Carroll to tune my Anglo in 1/5-comma meantone. (Partly due to discussions here and other places, so thanks!) It matches standard equal temperament at D, so A is ~2 cents flat and G is ~2 cents sharp. The major thirds are noticeably sweeter. I quite like it. I don't notice that it clashes with other instruments, and no one else has commented on it either. I am generally playing Irish traditional, where the key center is near D and pipes and fiddle don't use equal temperament in the first place. The wolf interval is G#/D# and is intentionally not even available on the same direction of the bellows on this one. Now, I do have another instrument with a slightly different 1/5-comma setup where the wolf interval is C#/G# and can be played, and I would call it "awful"! I was tempted to try 1/4-comma meantone to get the just major thirds. But the discrepancy with others is larger. And, the fifths are very commonly used in Irish concertina, and are noticeably flat in 1/4-comma. So I'm not sure it would work out well. Anyway, in my experience so far I would certainly agree that 1/5-comma is a good compromise and not extreme. Would recommend, would let it marry my sister, etc.