Post by jbone on Jun 26, 2018 10:02:13 GMT -5
I have played a lot of brands and styles of 10 hole diatonic harp, from $5 Johnson to high dollar custom Marine Bands. Over a lot of years I've found several that suit me for one purpose or another.
Decades ago I began looking for the one harp that was perfect for what I needed. After some years I realized that I would probably not find that harp. My style of playing kept changing- improving I like to think- so what worked 20 years ago, or 2 years ago, was not necessarily right for me today. I started out with a Hohner Marine Band from the 1950's, a harp my mother's father gave my father the year I was born. Some 16 years later I was given that harp as part of my legacy from Dad, who had been passed on for 12 years at that point. So my first harmonica was a decently made Marine Band from the 50's. I beat it mercilessly trying to figure out how to play. It stood up well but ultimately I killed a reed or two and tossed it. In the 70's when I was beginning the harp adventure, nobody I ever heard of repaired harps. In fact after my Grandfather passed I saw in his effects several harmonicas which I was told were ruined and didn't play any more. They sat in a drawer for years and were likely tossed out after his passing. As time went on I bought harps one or two at a time as I found I needed this or that key to jam with friends. Mostly Marine Band but also a 12 hole 365 model and several of the smaller Vest Pocket or Piccolo models as well. As time passed Hohner introduced the Special 20, a plastic comb harp that never warped. It was a pretty good seal too, so I eventually switched over. As time went on I began to play harder and this led to a lot of failed reeds and tossed harps. It was getting expensive to be a harp guy! I tried a lot of different solutions to the problem and finally learned to play with less force, which helped with harp longevity. But still I knew that I wanted the best I could get, without spending crazy money.
Some 17 years ago I made a deal with a well known customizer of Marine Bands. I sent him a box full of harps with dead reeds- usually one blown reed per harp- and in return for sending him all these donor harps he customized two Marine Bands and sent them to me. They were really nice harps! One was stolen and the other I am not sure where it ended up over the years. Great while I had them. More recently I did a similar deal with a newer next generation customizer and got a pretty nice MB in return plus a couple others that work but not fantastic. Still it was a decent deal.
Some history: When the demand for harmonicas took off some 40 or so years back, Hohner loosened their quality standards and let their tooling get worn down in the interest of filling the demand for their products. The result was lesser quality instruments, many of which played very poorly for some years. To address this issue, guys like Joe Spiers, Joe Filisko, Richard Sleigh, and more recently a lot of second generation customizers came on the scene and began reworking harps, especially Marine Band, to make them the best they could be. Mr. Filisko went to Hohner, or they approached him, I am not sure which, but Hohner took some of his suggestions and made changes to their process to make a decent Marine Band once again. They also introduced a couple of higher end model Marine Bands to the market, the Deluxe and the Crossover.
Last week I ordered my first MB Deluxe after getting some opinion from some key people on which might suit my needs. The Crossover features a bamboo comb which does not swell, and it's tuned differently than the Deluxe.The Deluxe is tuned much like the standard MB 1896. It's got a sealed comb to keep moisture from being an issue with the wood comb, it's screwed together instead of nailed, the reeds are better made too I think, and the covers are more air flow friendly. In short it's a harp which is as it should have been all along. The harp arrived last week and I have had a bit of opportunity to try it out. Today we'll be playing some and it will come out more. So far it has performed very well. All notes play with minimal effort and it has a nice feel to it. Volume wise it's better than an 1896 too. And I admit I've always liked the tone of the humble Marine Band. This one is no exception.
My answer to the MB dilemma some years ago was to defect to Suzuki and I have several of their models in my kit. But lately I have noticed that the one custom MB I have sounds very good too. And Manji reed plates are not as crisp sounding lately. This drove me to decide to give MB another try. The Deluxe costs about what a Manji does although the word is, MB will not take as much hard playing, and reed plates are more expensive. Still, I think maybe there is room in my case for both Suzuki and MB Deluxe. A bit more research and I will be sure one way or the other.
Probably the bottom line for me here is, if I want a good to great sounding harp, and can't afford full customs, perhaps I need to compromise a bit and let Hohner back into my kit, alongside other brands I've adopted. I'm going to give the Deluxe a workout in coming weeks and decide if it's going to be worth the change.
Decades ago I began looking for the one harp that was perfect for what I needed. After some years I realized that I would probably not find that harp. My style of playing kept changing- improving I like to think- so what worked 20 years ago, or 2 years ago, was not necessarily right for me today. I started out with a Hohner Marine Band from the 1950's, a harp my mother's father gave my father the year I was born. Some 16 years later I was given that harp as part of my legacy from Dad, who had been passed on for 12 years at that point. So my first harmonica was a decently made Marine Band from the 50's. I beat it mercilessly trying to figure out how to play. It stood up well but ultimately I killed a reed or two and tossed it. In the 70's when I was beginning the harp adventure, nobody I ever heard of repaired harps. In fact after my Grandfather passed I saw in his effects several harmonicas which I was told were ruined and didn't play any more. They sat in a drawer for years and were likely tossed out after his passing. As time went on I bought harps one or two at a time as I found I needed this or that key to jam with friends. Mostly Marine Band but also a 12 hole 365 model and several of the smaller Vest Pocket or Piccolo models as well. As time passed Hohner introduced the Special 20, a plastic comb harp that never warped. It was a pretty good seal too, so I eventually switched over. As time went on I began to play harder and this led to a lot of failed reeds and tossed harps. It was getting expensive to be a harp guy! I tried a lot of different solutions to the problem and finally learned to play with less force, which helped with harp longevity. But still I knew that I wanted the best I could get, without spending crazy money.
Some 17 years ago I made a deal with a well known customizer of Marine Bands. I sent him a box full of harps with dead reeds- usually one blown reed per harp- and in return for sending him all these donor harps he customized two Marine Bands and sent them to me. They were really nice harps! One was stolen and the other I am not sure where it ended up over the years. Great while I had them. More recently I did a similar deal with a newer next generation customizer and got a pretty nice MB in return plus a couple others that work but not fantastic. Still it was a decent deal.
Some history: When the demand for harmonicas took off some 40 or so years back, Hohner loosened their quality standards and let their tooling get worn down in the interest of filling the demand for their products. The result was lesser quality instruments, many of which played very poorly for some years. To address this issue, guys like Joe Spiers, Joe Filisko, Richard Sleigh, and more recently a lot of second generation customizers came on the scene and began reworking harps, especially Marine Band, to make them the best they could be. Mr. Filisko went to Hohner, or they approached him, I am not sure which, but Hohner took some of his suggestions and made changes to their process to make a decent Marine Band once again. They also introduced a couple of higher end model Marine Bands to the market, the Deluxe and the Crossover.
Last week I ordered my first MB Deluxe after getting some opinion from some key people on which might suit my needs. The Crossover features a bamboo comb which does not swell, and it's tuned differently than the Deluxe.The Deluxe is tuned much like the standard MB 1896. It's got a sealed comb to keep moisture from being an issue with the wood comb, it's screwed together instead of nailed, the reeds are better made too I think, and the covers are more air flow friendly. In short it's a harp which is as it should have been all along. The harp arrived last week and I have had a bit of opportunity to try it out. Today we'll be playing some and it will come out more. So far it has performed very well. All notes play with minimal effort and it has a nice feel to it. Volume wise it's better than an 1896 too. And I admit I've always liked the tone of the humble Marine Band. This one is no exception.
My answer to the MB dilemma some years ago was to defect to Suzuki and I have several of their models in my kit. But lately I have noticed that the one custom MB I have sounds very good too. And Manji reed plates are not as crisp sounding lately. This drove me to decide to give MB another try. The Deluxe costs about what a Manji does although the word is, MB will not take as much hard playing, and reed plates are more expensive. Still, I think maybe there is room in my case for both Suzuki and MB Deluxe. A bit more research and I will be sure one way or the other.
Probably the bottom line for me here is, if I want a good to great sounding harp, and can't afford full customs, perhaps I need to compromise a bit and let Hohner back into my kit, alongside other brands I've adopted. I'm going to give the Deluxe a workout in coming weeks and decide if it's going to be worth the change.