Hohner's XB-40 "Extreme Bending" Harmonica offers interesting new possibilities that neither diatonic nor chromatic harmonicas can, specifically the ability to bend notes down independant of the note layout. It's potential has only begun to be tapped.
Excited after Rick Epping's initial promotions and having a chance to experiment with the prototype at a harmonica event, Jazmaan took the bull by the horns. As soon as he was able he had Pat Missin retune his XB40 to Lee Oskar's Melody MakerTM tuning, reducing some of the bend ranges to a semitone, although retaining a number of the double bends, giving him choice notes offering more options when phrasing. He's put out sample recordings of his progress playing and improvising around Jazz heads using the instrument. He ends up playing in what would be very awkward keys on a regular diatonic, even with the help of overblows. He's looking to purchase a couple more in different keys so he can stick to easier positions and focus on making music.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Minor 3rd | E | |||||||||
| Wholetone | F | Ab | Eb | Ab | Eb | Ab | ||||
| Semitone | A | Db | Gb | A | Db | E | A | Db | E | A |
| Blow | Bb | D | G | Bb | D | F | Bb | D | F | Bb |
| Draw | C | F | A | C | E | G | A | C | E | G |
| Semitone | B | E | Ab | B | Eb | Gb | Ab | B | Eb | Gb |
| Wholetone | Eb | G | ||||||||
| Minor 3rd | Gb | |||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Natural | Bend | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whilst the natural note layout is exactly the same as above, I've opted for a slighty different range of blow bends. The blow bends on holes 1, 4 & 7 are the same as you find on blow 10, allowing one to play b7ths in 1st position, and minor 3rds in 2nd position across all three octaves. I've found having retuned most of the draw and blow bends to the range you'd expect on a regular diatonic, the XB40 is much more approachable, simply because I'm more familiar with it.
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Wholetone | G | E | G | G | G | |||||
| Semitone | Ab | C | F | Ab | C | Eb | Ab | C | Eb | Ab |
| Blow | A | C# | F# | A | C# | E | A | C# | E | A |
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| Draw | B | E | G# | B | D# | F# | G# | B | D# | F# |
| Semitone | Bb | Eb | G | Bb | D | F | G | Bb | D | F |
| Wholetone | D | F# | ||||||||
| Minor 3rd | F | |||||||||
| Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Natural | Bend | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|