More to Note layouts for the XB-40 for Chromaticity

["Fernando Bresslau" <fernando.bresslau@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G." <gi-@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;

An interesting prospect. Not the easiest of retuning jobs, but its quite
doable. I'd probably pick key of G XB-40 with diminished layout, not
because of
my nickname, but because its a very practical key for harmonica both
musically
and technically in my opinion.

I understand the XB-40 ~can~ be set up so you can overblow every note.
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Hi, everybody. I mentioned that I had some ideas already. The diminished
being the main one. It is really interesting, as it offers quite a great
range of possibilities as enharmonics, as you said, G..

Personally, it is a strong candidate, since I have already a diminished
diatonic (in C, though) and am going to retune two chromatics, one of them
to this tuning also (you know about my idea of tuning another to augmented).
So, if I have the three with the same tuning, this might prove productive. I
should, of course, to have them in the same keys, ideally.

But I´m still not convinced this is the best we can get out of the XB-40.
Since we now have 4 notes per hole, one octave could be perfectly fit in 3
holes. This would improve the range of the harmonica without increasing it´s
size. Augmented or Wholetone tuning, as presented in my recent post, comes
instantly to mind. We just have to keep in mind that we will be flattening
the notes, instead of sharpening them.

I don´t see much point in using overblows on this particular type of
harmonica, simply because they aren´t needed and the beast wasn´t designed
to optimally work with them. It would be a way of retaining the same
principle of the augmented chrom, and this could be very valuable to those
already used to the aug chrom. Since I haven´t build my aug chrom yet, and
am considering using a flat slide, I´ll stick to the more familiar bends.

Well, maybe I´m coming to a conclusion that I should have reached before I
posted the request for layouts, and here it is: it seems to me, that,
retaining the restriction of half step bends, the best layouts for the XB
are those best suited for the chroms, with bends lowering the notes, instead
of sharpening them.
It is still an interesting discussion, but, if I remove my self-imposed
restriction, some options open up, specially having 6 or more notes per
whole, making the compression of octaves still heavier.
But how far can we go here? How many semi tone bends can you push into one
hole? We are quite comfortable with 3 semitone bends, and I have heard bends
of greater intervals used as an effect in specially tuned harps, but is it
practical? if I put two reeds together which are one octave apart, will I be
able to play the whole octave precisely? Yea, I´ll try to make a prototype
sometime.

But I digress. I´m still interested in your thoughts on the XB-40 layouts.

Best regards,
Fernando Bresslau