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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
xb 40
xb 40
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walterharp
726 posts
Oct 12, 2011
7:25 PM
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Anybody else here play an xb40? I play one on some songs and just love it, the bends on every note really make it an expressive instrument, sort of sounds like a chromatic and is a pretty darn loud harp to boot.
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Todd Parrott
755 posts
Oct 12, 2011
7:29 PM
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I had one, but didn't take it too seriously... ended up trading it to Chris Reynolds. However, there are some guys that can really make those things sing, so my opinion of them has changed since I first bought mine.
I believe Will Scarlett had the original idea for this model, but never got credit. Perhaps Winslow can shed more light on this.
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PT
108 posts
Oct 13, 2011
9:40 AM
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When I hear James Conway (the Chicago James Conway)and Rick Epping (credited with the XB40 invention) play the XB40 it sounds fabulous....I could not make it sound good and have not heard anyone else do it justice either....although I am sure others can.
PT
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"Life...10 Holes & 20 Reeds At A Time"
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PT
109 posts
Oct 13, 2011
9:41 AM
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p.s. Winslow also can play the hell out of it!
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"Life...10 Holes & 20 Reeds At A Time"
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HawkeyeKane
267 posts
Oct 13, 2011
10:59 AM
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I haven't found any reaction from Levy on the XB-40. Bet he could make one of those sing.
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Hawkeye Kane
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WinslowYerxa
93 posts
Oct 13, 2011
11:38 AM
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I play XB-40 a lot for fiddle tunes. It's loud - a big help in an acoustic environment with multiple fiddles - and it's flexible on pitch, which can help when the key changes and you don't want to switch harps.
Howard doesn't like to play anything that isn't a 10-hole, 20-reed harmonica in standard tuning that plays standard bends and overbends. He's fine with whatever choices people want to make for valving, chromatics, alternate tunings, and so on. But for him the standard diatonic is his "little corner of infinity."
The story re Will and Rick is that Will came up with the idea of having a dedicated reed whose only purpose is to assist another note to play a bend. He came up with this independently, prior to the publication of Robert Johnston's scientific paper revealing the role of the responder reed in diatonic bending. Later Richard Sleigh and Brendan Power also came up with the idea, but WIll was the first, and he built a one-hole, three-reed prototype, which contained a draw reed, a blow reed that would, as in a normal harmonica, act as responder reed for draw bends, and a dedicated draw reed that would act as a responder reed for playing bends on the blow reed.
We also started keeping a patent journal, with signed and dated pages to document his ownership of the idea. Will revealed his idea to Rick Epping, who signed his acknowledgment on the patent journal, which WIll has shown to me. Will wanted to keep the idea and develop it himself but Rick pressed ahead against Will's wishes and developed the XB-40, with responder reeds for both the blow reed and the draw reed (hence 40 reeds and the Xtreme Bender 40, or XB-40). Will was very unhappy and did file a patent interference without success. After some time, Will decided that he was at peace with what happened and commended Rick for the design he came up with to realize the idea.
Rick claims that his patent does not cover the responder reed idea itself, only the design innovations Rick came up with t make the idea work in practice (and he did come up with some ingenious solutions to some very real problems).
Interestingly, Suzuki built a 10-hole prototype of Brendan's design, which has only 30 reeds (i.e., a dedicated responder reed only for the note that doesn't usually bend). I've played this instrument. It's only slightly bigger than a standard 10-hole harmonica and plays more like one as well. But as soon as news of Rick's patent hit, Suzuki dropped the project.
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2011 3:46 PM
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HawkeyeKane
268 posts
Oct 13, 2011
12:10 PM
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Very cool!
Little tidbit here...
Back in '42 the USAF developed a variant of the B-17. More heavily armed (up to 30 guns) and with an extra dorsal twin turret. Didn't have a very long service record. But the prototype's designation was the XB-40. Could be a cool emblem for Hohner to use on that harp.
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Hawkeye Kane
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WinslowYerxa
94 posts
Oct 13, 2011
1:23 PM
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I've recorded a few track in different styles with the XB-40. Here are three, all original compositions.
Windermere (XB in Bb, 2nd position) is an amplified blues (sort of) describing activities in a resort town that could themselves be described as 'extreme bender." Note the Blow bends in Holes 1 thru 6 on the upward riff on the IV chord, and the bending of Blow 6 in alternation with a 3-6 split.
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The Flounce (XB in G, first position) is a short tune reminiscent of Québécois fiddle tunes. The large hole make it much easier to play a split covering only three holes, which I do a lot in this recording. I'm often droning out of the left side of my mouth while moving around on the right side. Note the 2-semitone bend in Blow 7.
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The Dominion (XB in A, first pos) is a train tune, Canadian country style, using various one-semitone bends not possible on a standard diatonic.
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Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2011 3:43 PM
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nacoran
4758 posts
Oct 13, 2011
3:27 PM
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I have no idea if it would work, but I've had a goofy idea floating around in my head for a while involving perpendicular reeds. Actually, David Payne posted a link to an old patent involving perpendicular reeds but I couldn't figure out if they were alternating layout or if it was an all blow instrument.
I've wanted to try perpendicular reeds, set alternating blow and draw. I keep looking for a wrecked accordion for parts. The idea is that each chamber (except the very highest and lowest) would still have 2 reeds, but each reed would serve as a reed for 2 holes- the lower hole for the reed to it's left and the upper reed for the hole to it's right, with the reed itself sitting in the tine of the comb (that's why I want a busted accordion, their reeds are each set in their own individual reedplate which could substitute for tines).
I have no idea if it would actually work. It might explode if you tried to play a cord, but I thought if you set each reed 4 semitones apart you should be able to do deep bends on every hole and still get the same range. Just a matter of curiosity though. In a sort of sideways fashion it's trying to pair more reeds together to get more bends, but also cut down on the number of reeds. A ten holer would only need 11 reeds and the instrument might work chromatically. There are probably all sorts of bugs I'm not thinking of.
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Nate
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WinslowYerxa
98 posts
Oct 13, 2011
3:38 PM
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Actually you can the bending behavior you're describing simply by playing the top or bottom row of a tremolo harmonica.
One a Wiener construction harmonica (which most tremolos are) each reed is in its own separate chamber. Blow and draw reeds are side by side in neighboring holes.
By having a blow reed and a neighboring draw reed both in your mouth at once, you can bend the higher pitched note in a dual-reed bend with the lower pitched one. They don't ned to be in the same physical hole, just in the same air stream.
Tremolos do take more wind to play chords, but that's partly because of the upper/lower tremolo reed pairs.
You're also talking about pretty wide space of semitones, though, and creating this tuning by retuning an existing harp could be hairy. Creating augmented tuning on a chromatic is hard enough.
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2011 3:49 PM
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WinslowYerxa
99 posts
Oct 13, 2011
3:43 PM
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Accordion reeds come in pairs, not individually. Each reedplate has both a blow reed and a draw reed. The width of the reedplates may be uniform, which would allow you to stand then sideways and lay a floor and ceiling on them, but their length varies with the length of the reeds, making it trick to fashion a rear wall.
Also, accordion reeds are made of mild steel, which rusts if it gets moist from your breath. And they're much bigger than harmonica reeds, requiring more air to play.
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2011 3:46 PM
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nacoran
4759 posts
Oct 13, 2011
4:22 PM
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Thanks for the information! I've only messed around with tremolos a little. My first harp was actually a 'Blessing' brand harp my grandmother brought back for me from a trip to China. I remember seeing a picture of a single reed in it's own reed plate. I assumed it was from an accordion. I wonder what it was from then. The back wall issue is a little tougher, and I'm not sure exactly where I'd have air coming in, from the back through parallel holes or through the top. Like I said, it's just sort of a mental puzzle I like to toy with in my head.
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Nate
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