Marine Band 1896 Diatonic Harmonica

This is such a fun harmonica! A true classic, the Marine Band has great sound and comes in a convenient carrying case that makes it easy to put in the pocket of your jeans. Hohner's online learning materials are fantastic. I'm no Slim Harpo, but I sound better than I had expected to with this instrument.

This is the best harmonica on the market! It might save your marriage! The sound, tone and pitch is perfect. You will not get perfect pitch from a $10 factory produced harmonica. Some might say that perfect pitch isn't all that important for a beginner. I strongly disagree! When you're learning to play, perfect pitch is essential. Not only does it reward you as your skill improves but the quality of sound allows you to stay with it when your skill seems to plateau. You cannot play better than the tuning of your harmonica. Unlike a guitar, a harmonicas notes are set at the factory. You can't play better than the poor pitch of a cheap harmonica. Take it from an advanced harmonica player! If you buy a cheap, poorly tuned, harmonica you will sound terrible! I know that because I sound terrible on a cheap harmonica! And that leads to discouragement.Then you will want to give up. Then your cheap harmonica will just collect dust in a drawer. The Horner Marine Band has the perfect tuning that allows you to rise to the level of that pitch and tone quality. How might this harmonica save your marriage? The sound of student harmonica player is comparable to relentlessly scratching a chalk board to other people in the household. My ascendency of playing skill threatened the very peace of my marriage. The good news is we are still happily married. I'm not sure if that would be true if I was still climbing the learning curve on a $10 harmonica. LOL!

This Ben's notes all over the place. It's stealthy small and I wish one side was C and the other G like a larger harmonica I have.

My Dad loves this! He picked it up and started playing immediately. The sound is amazing!

These harps are constantly breaking on me but I keep on buying them because they sound great while they last. I guess I'm bending too hard and the reeds are blowing out. They are cheap enough for me to just keep on buying new ones each time they break. I think my reeds blowing out is probably just an operator error so I can't knock too many stars off for that. I love the wooden comb on here. So much more better than a plastic comb on most harmonicas. I tried switching to a Lee Oskar but I did not enjoy it at all. I thought it would be a step up but it was much harder to play than the marine band. I'm not sure if it had something to do with the comb or the reeds, but it felt really off. I came back to the Marine band and it was amazing. I'm so glad that I can find these little harmonicas on amazon with prime shipping. It saves me a trip to the dreaded Guitar Center.

Great product, great price!!

I've played blues harmonica since the 1960s — not professionally, but I have jammed with one or two greats, and a bunch of lesser-known but still talented musicians. I've owned Hohner Blues Harps, Special 20s and a Lee Oskar, and while I like all of them, I really love the Marine Band. I've owned them in A, B flat, C, D, E, F sharp and G (B flat has my favorite sound, but A is the one I use most for jamming, blowing cross-harp with guitars playing in E). Anyway, I can't recommend the Marine Band too highly. They just sound so good, and the reeds are so responsive. They are a sheer delight to play. The plastic combs on other harps may be slightly more "comfortable," but I don't blow harp to caress my lips, I do it to make music.

I grew up playing a Honor Marine Band and had not picked one up for over 40 years and judy plain forgot how fun it was to play. It's definitely not a toy which the price should tell you. It is professional grade and if you want to have a good experience playing or learning to play then you definitely need to spend the extra money and get onr of these. Do some research first o what songs you are looking to play so you buy the one in the proper key you need. I have 4 of these Marine Band now in different keys for different songs. LOVE them.