Harmonicas...Harps?

K Williams

K Williams

Joined
Nov 17, 1998
Messages
3,296
How many of you all play harps? What's your favorite model harp and playing setup?

I play Hohner Marine Bands through an Astatic JT-30 & Fender Blues Jr. amp.
 
...check out a Hohner Special 20. Spoils ya forever.

Synthetic frame instead of the wooden Marine Band frame. Especially nice if you use the old Chicago trick of soaking the harp (water's ok, vodka better, I swear, and I don't even drink.) Wood swells when you soak them and a lung full of sawdust sux after you have to file down the wood.

The Special 20 has better reeds, I think, and the notes bend like a dream even before being broken in with the soaking.

I love Hohner's Lee Oskar model, too. I'm just too cheap (poor) to use them.:)
 
I've been playing casually since the mid 60's, I play simple folk melodies and re-tune the first two draw notes of my Richter tuned diatonics to get a more complete major scale on the lower notes.

I like the top of the line Herings, though I have not found them around lately. Right now I have a Hohner Big River in my shirt pocket, not bad for the price, I have played many in my lifetime and my favorites are Hering from Brazil, Hohner from Germany and Lee Oscar made by Tombo in Japan.

I agree with the comment on the Hohner Special 20 though I have seen three different models named Special 20, the first one came out before the MS series, very similar to the Marine Band 1896 but with plastic comb and screwed on plates, then there was a cheaper one made in China and then the MS series model, the first German model was my regular for a long while.

I've looked around with no luck for the new Hohner Marine Band De Luxe, I like to see before buying so I will keep looking, it should come to Mexico City some day...

Luis
 
Another thread with some links: Blues Harp help

The reviews I've seen of the Marine Band Deluxe have been very negative. Hohner has a long-standing marketing strategy of putting a different name and some different decoration on a harp and charging ten or twenty times as much money for it....
 
I don't claim to be any good, but been messing around with a few harps for the past ten years. I just can't seem to get to the next level. My many years of trumpet playing has helped my tone and I can seem to bend (draw/blow) naturally.

I have Hohner Special 20's in A, B, C, D, G.
 
whats the point of soaking the harmonica?...i never did for my special 20...did i mess up...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top