‘The ChromaBender has the outward appearance of a chromatic but sounds like a diatonic! Its parts (covers, comb, reedplates and mouthpiece) and standard Solo tuning come from the chromatic, so chrom players can play it straight away. But the sound and playability is like that of a 10 hole blues harp! Instead of a slider, the ChromaBender uses internal x-reeds and draw and blow bending to give you buckets of soul and full, easy chromatic scales over three octaves.
This unique new harp allows any chromatic player to get bluesy without having to switch to a different tuning or smaller-size harp, and it allows blues harp players to get chromatic using their familiar, easy blow & draw bending technique. Many 10 hole diatonic players like to use a chrom for 3rd position playing. Now they can get those big octave tones plus draw and blow bending on all notes!
X-Reed designed the tuning and specialist reedplates for this harp, and chose the Brazilian company Hering to make it. After examining chromatic reedplates under the microscope we found that Hering have the best reed/slot tolerances of all, and that’s important for this triple-reed design. Brendan travelled to the Hering factory in Blumenau, Brazil to work with Hering engineers to create this all-new 36 reed model.
We are sure the ChromaBender will open up a whole new harmonica sound as players from both the chromatic and diatonic camps bring their own experience and strengths to create a unique hybrid sound.‘