[Harp-L] Marine Bands

[Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Though he says he doesn't play them, Bill Kumpe basically asks why  
anyone bothers to buy Marine Bands and suggests there is a concensus  
that the quality is getting worse. This is definitely not true, as  
Frank Evers has remarked. I've been closely involved with the  
struggle to improve this quality and can tell you with some degree of  
certainty that the time when the quality really did leave a lot to be  
desired was the 80s and 90s. The quality of the current production of  
standard MBs is something I check on whenever I'm in the factory  
(coupla time a year at least) and is currently the best it's been  
since the 50s or 60s. For blues playing they're fine out of the box  
but may need minor adjustment if you want to set them up to overblow.

Of course if people have issues about the wooden comb or the sharp  
corners this is another matter and is one of the reasons why Hohner  
has recently released MB upgrades in the form of the Deluxe (where  
not all those issues were addressed successfully) and the Crossover  
(which for my money is the best harp on the market today). Both these  
models are mid-priced in comparison with harps by other  
manufacturers. Sure you have to like the sound, but an awful lot of  
very good players do. It's also no coincidence that the harp of  
choice for a large number of customizers is the Marine Band. This is  
not because they're such poor instruments to start with, it's because  
in the opinion of these highly capable artisans they represent the  
best raw material on the market to make custom harps out of. They  
customize them because they're good, not because they're bad. To  
quote Brad Harrison, the Marine Band is the benchmark diatonic harp  
which everything else has to measure up to. Why not try playing one  
and form your own opinion?

I've played numerous harps from all other manufacturers which had  
flaws out of the box and would venture to suggest that this is almost  
impossible to avoid under the conditions of industrial series  
production. To imply that it's something which only affects Hohner  
Marine Bands is misleading and inaccurate,

Steve Baker
www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com