Coming back to the topic, I don't think we have to agree on whether there is "one wave," or not. But there isn't a lot of room for discussion when the entire concept of coincident partials is dismissed for "make 'em sound good." I don't think that helps me figure out under what circumstances I might want to make my bass octaves wider or narrower, and why or how it matters.
I have a customer who told me she didn't like the way I tuned the bass on her small console. They were my default, 6:3 octaves tuned m3/M6. We traded a couple of emails after that, and I promised we could work on it if she had me back again. She did, so I demonstrated how they sounded as I progressed from 8:4 width up through 4:2. She preferred the narrower ones, and when I was finished was happier with the way the piano sounded, even though I didn't particularly like the result.
Unfortunately, I got the feeling she took my commentary as pointing out that her ears were unusual. I tried to point out she was merely more discerning than many of my other customers, and having a particular taste was not a bad thing. I'll see if she responds to my next reminder
