Re: RE: To harp retailers: who's got XB-40's??

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tim Northcutt wrote:
> I have some XB-40s in stock. 
<snip>
> I know that Tim Moyer has one. Maybe he can
> give us a little insight.

Yes, I made a bee-line to the Hot Rod Harps Hospitality Suite at SPAH 
and nabbed myself one of those little babies (and a cold Shiner 
Bock!).  I have been playing it some.  It's very interesting.  

It has a curious tone, which has been compared by some to a 
chromatic.  I think it deserves some of this characterization, 
although it certainly doesn't play like a chromatic.  The bends are 
true double-reed bends, just like a normal diatonic, but this is no 
normal diatonic.  

If you go about trying to play it like your average ten-holer, the 
first thing that's going to happen is you're going to start dropping 
into "pot holes" where the deeper bends are available, like the 5-
draw, which barely bends at all on a normal harp, but has a whole 
tone bend range on the XB-40.  Similarly, the 1 and 4 draws, which 
only bend a semitone on your old harp, are going to drop a wholetone 
on the XB-40.  This point was raised to Rick Epping during 
his "What's new at Hohner" seminar, and his response was 
interesting.  Rick maintains that too often players just take the 
bend that they get in a particular place, and do not precisely try to 
bend to the desired pitch.  The XB-40 will force the player to choose 
the pitch of the note they want and bend precisely to that pitch.  
It's more work, but the results will improve all your playing, and it 
definitely opens up some new possibilities with this harp.  

Of course, the blow notes all bend as well.  I also found that it's 
fairly easy to translate some simple overblowing to the XB-40.  Where 
you used to overblow 1, 4, 5, 6 to get notes a half step higher than 
the blow note, you can now move up a hole and blow bend *down* to 
that note.  It takes a little thought, but can be done.  

I've heard people suggest that the XB-40 is really useful for 
positions other than 2nd, but I haven't begun to explore that yet.  I 
have been enjoying translating some of the standards that I used to 
play with overblows onto this harp and having the extra bends for 
ornamentation is nice.  I don't see it replacing all the standard 
harps in most people's gig bags, particularly if you are primarily a 
2nd position I-IV-V player, but it's definitely worth checking out.

- -tim