Re: [Harp-L] XB-40 bending

[burket@xxxxxxx]

 Hi Robert:

Nice to see folks still in support of the the XB 40.  I picked up a few new keys myself recently.  

I'm not sure if this will help, but:

I recently had a problem with a brand new, out of the box Low D XB40 which had a very weak and unresponsive 1 and 3 hole draw.   Phhhffftttt,   Phhhffftttt.  (sounded like that- right :)  The 2 and 4 draws and all the low blow notes were nice and tight.  Not a good way to start a relationship with a new harmonica.  

In taking it apart and checking the reeds, I noticed that the 1 and 3 draw gaps of the primary notes were set pretty high and not profiled all that flat  (   \___    ).   I worked on this a bit, but still did not have much improvement.  I then looked at the sympathetic/ bending reed gaps for those same notes and noticed that they were gapped "way" high. Almost as high as the primary reeds themselves.

All the other bending reed gaps for the other notes (except the 1 and 3 draw), were set very flat, and very tightly gapped.  I re gapped the bending reeds for the 1 and 3 draw almost to where they were closed, made a slight tuning adjustment to the low E, and the harp plays great now.  That fixed the problem for me.  I have to thank Rick Epping for pointing me in the right direction in terms of how the reed chamber, primary, and sympathetic bending note reeds interact on this amazing piece of harmonica construction.  

It makes sense that if the bending reed gap is too high, you end up leaking critical air that should be going to the primary reed.  

I'm going to take a look at my other keys and see if there are any similar problems.  If others have any other tips for maintaining and working on the XB I'd be very interested in hearing your experiences.


Good luck
Burke T.



Message: 1
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 16:31:30 -0700
From: Robert Hale <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] XB-40 bending
To: harp-L list <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID:
	<CAMLFfH4u4dfMHydy4WW6Q_+2k1JUmzhDTw9679SMSzy22mnz-Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I have an XB-40 in A.
What reed adjustments can I consider for making Blow 3 and 4 a little more
responsive?
Everything else is sweet.

Thanks.

Robert Hale

See you at SPAH2012

Spiral Advocate

Learn Harmonica by Webcam

Low Rates, High Success

http://www.youtube.com/DUKEofWAIL

http://www.dukeofwail.com