Blue x-lab Easy Bend Harmonica
Winslow
David recently reviewed a microphone from a company called Blue x-lab, based in Italy. I have ordered one to try out. While on their site I saw a product they call the Easy Bend harmonica which they claim makes bending, and overbending, easier. I would be interested to hear if you have heard of this and any opinions you might have on its potential use. The link is attached
https://www.bluexlab.com/en/product/easybend/?v=2a47ad90f2ae
Thanks for reply Winslow. I take your point on there being potentially better alternatives for the money.
The "meat" of the explanation is in the last 2 pages. From what I can understand (I speak Spanish, which is not that far away from Italian) from those pages it seems the harmonica has some "kit" (extra brass plates and teflon seal) which ensure that no air leaks on the sides of the slot closest to the rivet. So it seems this is just something similar to embossing the reed slot to ensure better air tightness, only that they use two extra layers (brass + teflon) per reed plate. No magic bending capability besides air tightness that I can see.
Thanks, Gary. I haven't played this or talked with anyone who has. All the detail about how or why it works is in Italian, in a form that doesn't allow the text to be copied into a translator app. Looks interesting, but I'd like to know more.
The Youtube playing demos don't seem to show anything that can't be done on a well-adjusted standard harmonica.
Basic bending of course, is best learned on a standard harp. For 115 Euros you could just as easily buy a semi-custom harp that, as far as I can tell, would give you the same capabilities.