Half Step with a Half step
 

Has anyone tried to run a half step front chainring triple with the granny being just another half step? e.g. a 49-46-43?

Yup -- 1/3 step, to be precise.

I ran 50-47-44 / 14-16-19-23-26 on the Nishiki and 49-46-43 / 13-16-19-23-26 on my first Capo. The Nishiki had 13 usable and evenly-spaced gear ratios (no cross-chaining), and the Capo had 14 (small-small crosschain OK, no large-large). I was pretty happy with both setups, although when I converted the PKN-10 to tripe, I went with a more conventional close-ratio half-step-plus-granny: 48-45-34 / 13-15-17-19-21-24.