Re: XB-40 Retunings?

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxx>]

jazmaan wrote:
> I'm still thinking about retuning possibilities for the XB-40.   
> I'm thinking that the beast might be more controllable if some of 
> the whole note bends were replaced by half-note bends.  

When Rick Epping was asked about this issue at SPAH2003, his response 
was that bends should be approached by taking the note down to the 
proper pitch, not taking the note down to the limit enforced by the 
relative pitch of the responder reed.  Apparently, his research while 
developing the XB-40 showed that the pitch of a bend wasn't limited 
by the responder to *precisely* a semitone of its pitch, so that the 
practice of just bending a note down until it stops bending doesn't 
give a precisely pitched note.  The XB-40 was designed to provide 
more flexibility in the bends, and not as a sort of augmented 
standard diatonic, but it requires some additional discipline to 
fully exploit the possibilities.

- -tim