Re: [Harp-L] FW: xb 40

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Brent - 

You can find XB-40s for $80-ish if you look.

They hold up under very hard use in my experience (ymmv). I played a G, and A, and a low D acoustically with a large fiddle group (anywhere between 10 and 100+ players), playing *very* loudly for about three years before I needed to tune a reed, and another year after that before any reeds broke (on the G harp, the one I use about 80% of the time).

The XB-40 is as serviceable as any other kind of harmonica. It's completely held together with screws (lots of screws). You can remove the covers, the reedplates, and the mouthpiece, and even take the bottom and top halves of the comb apart.

The reeds are on two reedplates, same as any harmonica, but with blow and draw reeds side by side on both reedplates (like on a chromatic). You can tune, gap, and even replace the reeds, same as on any harmonica. The Hohner service department sells reedplates, covers, combs, and individual replacement reeds.

What the XB-40 has that most diatonics don't are valves, the little plastic flaps that are used on chromatics and half-valved diatonics to conserve air flow. On most valved harmonicas the valves are mounted on the reedplates. However, on the XB-40, the valves are mounted on the chamber walls inside the comb. You can get at one set of valves by removing the reedplates, and the other set by taking the top and bottom halves of the comb apart. Sometimes you need to re-glue a valve that has fallen off or unstick one that has gotten gummed up.

If you can bend notes down normally on a standard diatonic - for instance, if you can sustain Draw 3 bent down two semitones, or blow 10 bent down two semitones, then you have the basic chops to bend notes on an XB-40. All 20 notes bend down the same basic way that the bendable notes on a standard diatonic do. (However, the blow notes in the bottom two holes tend to be challenging for most players.

The thing you might not except and would have to get used to is the fact that all the blow notes bend. If you're used to playing hard, at first you may bend notes that you don't want to bend; you need to adjust your technique a little.

Hope this helps.

Winslow

--- On Mon, 4/28/08, Brent Lambert <brent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Brent Lambert <brent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] FW: xb 40
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Monday, April 28, 2008, 12:17 PM
> From: Brent Lambert [mailto:brent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 1:03 PM
> To: 'harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx'
> Subject: xb 40
> 
> I am an intermediate level player, 10 hole diatonic in  3
> positions,  and
> have some questions for those that have purchased an xb 40.
> Over the years I
> have experimented different harps and found that the Lee
> Oskar gives me the
> volume and control I need as I play acoustically. I can
> afford to try a new
> kind of harp for $20-$30 and run the risk of not liking it,
> but
> experimenting with a $100 harp is difficult.  Having said
> all this here are
> my questions.
> What are the pros and cons of the xb 40?
> Do they hold up under hard use?
> Are they serviceable?
> Because of the number of reeds and their placement in these
> chambers how
> difficult is tuning the reeds once they go flat or sharp?
> Will this harp give someone with my level of playing more
> versatility or is
> it for those that find bending and overblowing difficult?
> 
> 
> Brent Lambert
> Work 731-664-8443
> Cell     731-616-2993
> email brent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> 
> 
> 
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