What Harp Do You Use?

The questions that come my way have to do with equipment and such, and I suppose which harp I use is the number one query.  Well, I gotta say up front that there is no PERFECT sound that all harp players agree on, nor should there be. It's like there's a sound in your head/heart/gut that you're trying to reach on the one hand and, on the other, what you can do and how you sound.

I've tried a ton of different harps and my little carrying case with a good range of harmonicas has a kind of odd range of types and brands. A few, like Big River Harps by Hohner, I don't keep within reach and are off on a shelf somewhere. I don't personally like the feel of the harp and the reeds and such are a bit recessed and make clean, natural blows and draw cumbersome for me. Another person's mileage may differ. If that was all one had to blow on, I'm sure one could adapt and conform to the feeling of the harp and the air space issues that I ran into. On the other hand, life is a bit short.

I don't usually find fault with a Hohner Marine Band, of course, and it has that sort of historical blues mojo. Having said that, I do see that in the more recent times I get a clunker now and then, one with whining and shrill or non-working reeds. That was unthinkable five years ago. It just didn't happen.  As far as I can tell, even though prices are going through the roof for harps the quality overview sucks and things are getting out of the factory that should have been tossed back in for repair or testing. So, if that happens to be your paying job in life, you'd better make sure your resume is up to date.

Lots of people love the Hohner Special 20's, although the diminished qualities evident in Hohner products these days can come through, they're not exactly terrible. They have to be babied a bit, which I don't want to think about when I'm playing.

Lee Oskars were once my unquestioned favorite to play. Loved the sort of mid and lower rumble and tone and have never been a guy who plays a lot on the higher end of the harp. I've heard, and only heard, things that suggest the quality, like Hohner, are suffering as of late. I suppose after the Marine Band gusto I have, I rarely ever find much wrong with a Lee Oskar.

Now, at the risk of being dumb, I have also played the Suzuki Promaster and the lesser-in-the-line Suzuki Bluesmaster. The Promaster everybody slobbers over because it's so much more expensive, but to me it's like blowing a brick. No life. No pizazz that you'll feel and hear with a Marine Band. The Bluesmaster, however, is one that I have in a C harp because Suzuki sent it to me some time ago in hopes I'd review it. I prefer the Bluesmaster to the Promaster anytime, and one thing I noticed is how I can sit in the back of a bus or on a bench and play very, very quietly and have the sound be full and not subject to choking attempts of reeds to vibrate. It's also the smoothest in terms of my mouth/feel as I'm trucking along playing. Unlike some, it also doesn't yank my mustache hair now and then and make my eyes pop open.

I haven't played the Bluesmaster in public in a band in a while but think I will at a jam/gig on Wednesday night just to see how it handles at full volume.

I hear good things about the Seydel (Heck, on Google it shows it was the favorite harp in Poland)(?) but don't have the $70+ bucks to toss down on one.

There is no "right" sound or "right" harp except the one that is for you to help get the sound out of your head and into the air. I'm always interested, however, in who likes what and why.