Re: XB-Melody/improvement?

[Philharpn@xxxxxxx]

For some people, the XB-Melody re-tuning may be an improvement. But I fail to 
see how rearranging the reed layout on an XB-40 makes it an any more 
"manageable beast." Or that the bends on the XB-40 are "slippery."

>From my limited experience -- I haven't spent as much time as I would like on 
mine -- the XB-40 is the easiest bending harmonica I have ever owned (and I 
have several brands of plastic and wood body Richters made in various parts of 
Germany, Brazil, China and who knows.

The chief advantage of the XB-40 is not only that it allows chromatic playing 
but it allow so many bends. 

The bends are important because of their timbre or sound; with so many of 
them available the player no longer is stuck playing a few bends among a majority 
of straight notes.

The bends (two blow; two draw minimum according to specs) on every hole 
except hole 3 Draw (with 3) allows for economy of movement -- playing more notes on 
the same hole, without jumping from hole to hole and the playing of smears 
(sliding into a note from below)>

Personally, I've never been able to work with my Lee Oskar Melody Makers 
because the notes are not where I expect them to be. Making a complete diatonic 
scale available without bending is no help at  all because I can easily achieve 
the 2 "missing notes" in the first octave. Changing the note layout, even 
slightly, Prior knowledge gets in the way of playing.

Using an XB-Melody Maker seems to be a tuning whose time has not come. The 
6-speed automatic transmissions  may offer the same (or better) fuel economy as 
a 6-speed manual transmission. But when the object is the experience is to 
drive a smooth stick shift, there is no comparison.

If the object is to simply play the chromatic scale, why go to the trouble to 
bend notes?

If all you want is the  ability to play chromatic notes, get  a chromatic. In 
fact, get one in every key. That way you can play the chord that goes with 
the notes. But that's another story ...

Phil Lloyd, Contributing Editor
American Harmonica Newsmagazine
May-June AHN issue just went to press...

In a message dated 6/26/2004 12:36:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
dmf273@xxxxxxxxx writes: 
>From: Philharpn@xxxxxxx
>Subject: what is a XB Melody v. XB-40

>What is the XB Melody??
>How is it different from XB-40?

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An XB-Melody is an altered tuning you can make yourself from a stock XB-40.  
Or have 
someone retune it for you.   It's based on the Lee Oskar Melody Maker tuning.

        E
        F   Ab      Eb  Ab      Eb  Ab
A   Db  Gb  A   Db  E   A   Db  E   A
Bb  D   G   Bb  D   F   Bb  D   F   Bb
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10
C   F   A   C   E   G   A   C   E   G
B   E   Ab  B   Eb  Gb  Ab  B   Eb  Gb
    Eb  G
        Gb

Every note in the chromatic scale (except for the high "A" at blow 10) can be 
acheived
either unbent or fully bent.  This helps to tame the XB-40 into a more 
manageable beast
if you want to play chromatically.   There may be other tunings that would 
achieve that
same goal, but the XB-Melody tuning stays fairly close to Richter tuning (the 
low-end
draw bends are identical to Richter) so its probably easier for most diatonic 
players
to adapt to than a radical retuning like wholetone or diminished.