On the maintenance of the XB-40



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Dear wind sculptors

Having gathered a little bit of more info on my new XB-40, I would like =
to offer my comments on it=B4s maintenance.

First of all, I should congratulate Rick Epping and Hohner for such a =
good product. I have no other more sincere adjective to this harmonica.

Well, after playing it for some minutes, I couldn=B4t help myself and =
opened the harmonica up.

First of all, you shouldn=B4t bother with unscrewing the mouthpiece. It =
is attached to the body aditionally by means of a very strong double =
face adhesive tape. And it doesn=B4t stand in the way of the important =
parts.=20

Unscrewing the coverplates, you will expose all the reeds, main and =
auxiliary. For the blow plate, you will have access to the aux reeds, =
and for the draw plate, to the main reeds. The screws are good and well =
dimensioned, but I would prefer them to be Philips type (or cross head, =
I=B4m not sure of the naming here). The standard Hohner Pozidriv(e?) =
would also be ok.

These reeds are longer than the ones of an ordinary diatonic harmonica, =
and seem well milled and set. The tuning marks are also different and =
more even than what I have seen until yet. I am very curious to know =
what rotary bit was used in this proccess. I regapped the draw reeds 2, =
3 and 4, since I thought they were leaking too much air to my taste. =
Regapping was easy and normal, and these reeds play better now.

Setting up the aux reeds seems simple enough, since the offset is zero. =
Actually, they lie about halfway of their thickness down in the slot. I =
imagine that you will have to widen the gap before retuning them (if =
necessary), and then resetting the offset to zero again before playing. =
The tuning and gapping of the main reeds is ordinary.

The reeds are riveted more in the fashion of Hering reeds than with the =
wider MS rivets, which, theoretically, seem to be nicer. Although I do =
prefer the MS rivets, I wouldn=B4t like to see this comment taken as a =
negative oppinion, since I don=B4t expect any real problems coming from =
this direction. You could call this maybe a esthetical comment :-)

The plates, which are very flat, are held together with many (over 7, I =
would have to count) Pozidriv screws, and seem to take care of any =
leaking problems. These screws come in two lenghts, since the body part =
further from the mouthpiece is wider. They are thin and have small =
heads, and care should be taken while handling them, since they are made =
of brass. A simple philips screwdriver with a somewhat rounded point did =
the trick for me.

With the plates out, you have now access to all teh reeds and to the =
valves=B4 system, and I was very glad to see that their maintenance will =
also be simple. They are ordinary Hohner valves with teflon flaps, which =
I consider very smart. The teflon prevents the adherence of both parts =
of the valve (valve and flap), which decreases the risk of curving =
valves. It will be a simple matter to take the valves from the body, =
where they are attached and replace them, as long as you have =
replacement valves of make yourselfe some. It wil be a bit fiddlier than =
on chroms, where the valves are attached to the reed plates and you =
don=B4t have the chamber where teh valves are glued.

Oh yes, the coverplates are firmly suported by two studs which are fixed =
to the reed plates, not to the body. Once assembled, the harp seems to =
be very hard to be crushed by stage-driven nervous breakdowns.

I have some small issues with the 2 draw and 10 blow, but I will have to =
investigate this better, since it may be only a problem of playing =
technique. Aside from that, the harp plays magnificently and loudly =
(debut was already yesterday (or better, today at 1:15 am) at the main =
local Jam here in S=E3o Paulo), the bends are fairly ordinary and the =
bigger size doesn=B4t bother me.

I am very pleased with this instrument, and am anxious to see what kind =
of music will emerge from it in the near future. I=B4m already =
contacting players which, differently from me, already use chromaticity =
in their playing, to see how they are going to figure this new =
instrument type out.

Best regards,
Fernando Bresslau
S=E3o Paulo - Brazil







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