Customer Reviews

Hohner XB40 Extreme Bending Harmonica (Key of C)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like collecting novelties or interesting historical artifacts, this may prove to be one. There are at least new ideas coming forth in the area of harmonica physics and one might become an amazing product. I waited a month before I wrote this because I wanted to be fair to the incredible effort that went into designing this and making it affordable. Sorry, but it is hard to NOT bend notes and thus the sound "pallete" becomes very un-chromatic. It's good for honking but too much honking without contrast is dull. Contrary to what you might believe, Little Walter did more than just honk. He contrasted dirty and pretty sounds with his "Mississippi Saxophone" like a jazz master. My advice: use the money to buy a chromatic harmonica, or, buy Howard Levy's video "New Directions for Harmonica" and get some basics on playing a ten-hole diatonic chromatically by using that "simple" instrument expressively and imaginatively.

Okay - before buying this instrument, you must understand why it is a 5-star review for ME. Disclaimer: if you are a beginner or intermediate harmonica player, this is probably NOT the harmonica for you!! I was a Lee Oskar fan for years. Lately I've been loving the response of the Hohner Special 20's. The latter is what I currently recommend for beginner/intermediate players. If you have not absolutely mastered bending (can bend the 2 half-steps in tune on the 2 draw and the 3 half-steps on the 3 draw, and all the blow bends at the top) I would not recommend that you buy the XB-40. If you are not comfortable playing in different positions, I would not recommend buying the XB-40

I've been playing harmonica for 14 years. I play professionally and teach. I live in Hawaii and play mostly Reggae, Funk, Fusion, Jazz, Hawaiian, and Country music, and only a little bit of Blues. Early in my career, it was all blues. I'm a professional musician. I love playing in different positions, my favorite probably being the Dorian mode (The 2 draw is the root. I believe it's referred to as 3rd position.) I play across all 3 octaves in whatever position I'm playing in. I love the blow bends in the top octave.

I've been LONGING to get those "missing notes," most notably the b3 in the second octave in cross-harp, the b5 in the same octave, but, really, ALL of them. I first purchased a chromatic harmonica several years ago and was very disappointed to discover the tuning, tone, and ability to bend, VERY different from the diatonic harp.

At the beginning of this year I remembered how I used to listen to Bela Fleck album that had harp, did some research, and discovered Howard Levvy, and the Howard Levy Harmonica School which you can find online, and is a GREAT, affordable resource that you should definitely check out! Howard, for those of you who don't know, is the master of what is called the "overblow" technique which enables you to get the "missing" notes, but it requires a GOOD deal of TINKERING with the harmonica (opening up the harmonica, adjusting the action of the reeds, etc.) I AM NOT A GOOD TINKERER! And it's not what I want to be spending my time doing!!! You can buy custom-setups, but they're VERY expensive ($400-$500)

John Cruz had told me I should check out the Hohner XB-40 when we were at the Kuai music festival a couple of years ago, and I finally got around to purchasing one. I love this instrument! It gives me all the notes I need to play jazz lines in unison with sax players, to play along with the horn section in a funk band, and to bring more color into blues playing.

To be sure, it's a BEAST! I'm gonna need to shed this thing for a LONG time to get my INTONATION where it needs to be, but for me it's exactly what I've been looking for: the tone, and bending capabilities of a diatonic, with all the chromatic notes available.

If I could change one thing about it it would be the 4 draw. It's annoying have the tongue action required to bend it down only a half-step to be SO small. It makes it really hard to play all the basic blues riffs that have that half-step bend. At some point, I think I would like to see if I could modify it so that that reed can only be bent down a half-step. Also, there are squeaks in the draw bends in the top octave. The more I play it, the more I'm seeming to overcome them.

I should also mention that being able to execute the overblow technique seems to be relevant to being able to effectively execute the blow bends in the low octave on the XB-40.

At this point I only have a C harp. As you investigate more, you'll notice they don't have all 12 keys, and the keys only go down from C, I believe. I will be buying more keys, but haven't yet. I've been very busy with other projects that have me on the guitar and have not been playing as much harp as I would like to.

I have decided to make the Hohner XB-40 the instrument that I want to pursue. Again - it's not for everyone. If you are a intermediate/advanced to advanced player who is hungry for more chromaticism, I definitely recommend picking this up. If you're having trouble deciding and want to talk it out, please feel free to email me at luke@truelivingproductions.com.

Happy shopping. Happy playing. Happy living. Peace!

If you want to see what can be done with "bending" without extreme mouth and breathing contortions, this instrument is worth looking at. While I wouldn't recommend it for performances (it does "honk" easily), it is interesting and fun to experiment with.

This harp gives you the best of both worlds, it can be played chromatically with chromatic tone and it can be played diatonically with the ability to bend anywhere you want, up or down.

Unlike other 10-hole diatonics, this can be played at very low volumes with very sweet results and at high volumes like a sax.

It's new tech and it's great.