I've been in China for the past two weeks; YouTube is not available there, so I just saw the excellent video below by Richard Sleigh. Richard shows how many classic traditional Blues harmonica riffs can easily be shifted up the octave on the UltraBend with very cool and surprising effect. This truly IS Modern Blues Harmonica:
Thanks Brendan for re-posting and Richard for putting this video out. Very inspirational. I love having these bends available on the high register of the harp.
Aside from all the discussion about the cost of the Sub 30 (can't keep kicking myself for being an early adopter :), I have a Sub 30 in A that I plan to modify and customize based on Richard's suggestions.
I've been enjoying my XB 40's lately as well. They got a good workout at the Fairfax, CA Irish music festival last weekend. The last set of the night actually turned into a nice blues jam to close things out.
I think if you retune the complimentary reeds of the XB40 to give you 1 semitone bends only, you will enjoy it much more.
I've never opened one by the way... would love to see a picture of how Rick Epping managed to house two diatonics in one. I mean technically, that requires 4 levels of reedplates.
