Hohner Marine Band Review: The Industry Standard

Hey good people out there. Here’s my take on the Hohner Marine Band, which is the #1 best-selling harmonica model of all time. First launched in 1896, this model has been regularly played on stage by probably every famous harmonica player you can think of – from Bob Dylan to Neil Young to Adam Gussow to Howard Levy. You can see an interesting list of famous Marine Band players right here.

The price is about 35-40$ which is the most common price range for good harmonicas for everybody – from straight up first-time harmonica players to professionals that record with it and play live.

The Marine Band is the standard. Everybody knows it. But is the standard actually that good? Let’s find out together. I have been playing Marine Bands for years and one specific Marine Band that I have has been around the world with me twice, mostly out of its carrying case, and it survived to tell you all about it. How are they compared to other harmonicas too? Let’s get down to business.

The Hohner Marine Band.

Watch My Bob Marley – “Jammin'” Harmonica Cover – Played on a Marine Band – Key of D

Hohner Marine Band – Pros:

• How it plays: What I liked about the Marine Band from the beginning was that it really felt like a music instrument when you draw and blow air through it. You can feel the brass reeds vibrating deep inside it. It responds very well and very fast to your breathing and has a great push and “voice projection”. These harmonicas are the real thing and that’s how it feels like and sound like.
• The Physical Feels and Looks: Nothing extraordinary here, but it does the job. The quality is as high as you can expect from a harmonica which is still handmade in Germany to these days. Often times, the Marine Band is the first harmonica (or first real harmonica) that people get to hold in their hands because it’s so common. Usually, they would be surprised by the great weight it packs. Not too heavy but not too light either. You can feel it’s made from wood and metal and not from plastic like the very cheap harmonica models. This gives it a great feeling in the hands.
• It comes with a Hard shell case: The Marine Band comes with that famous white hard shell case. Inside it, the plastic casing tends to fall apart after a year or two of use, which I don’t like, but you can easily fix it permanently with a bit of good plastic glue.
• The “Multi Notes” sound perfect: (“multi notes” is the sound you make when you play a couple of notes at the same time as opposed to “single notes” which take some practice and technique) The multi notes here sound very fat and nice – almost with that big “accordion” sound effect that good harmonicas have.
• Perfect for beginners: because the Marine Band delivers a very “rounded” performance as a package – it feels like a premium product and sounds great without any big disadvantages – that’s the harmonica (or either the Blues Harp which is just as good) I recommend as the starting point for everybody. It defiantly deserves its spot as the industry standard.
• Ease of bending: Bending is one of the signature techniques of the harmonica which is used a lot in blues. If you’re a beginner – you know that the Marine band’s got your back with relatively easy to perform bends for when (and if…) you’ll choose to venture into the bends…
• Durability: I don’t know how they do it – but this one specific Marine Band that I had with me has actually survived so much beating, more than any other harmonica I have seen, and other than the occasional reed that gets stuck and can be released with a little bang on a table, it still works great and sounds great. It did get a couple of bents though while it was out of its case, which is a weak point I’ll talk about in the Cons section.

Chillin’ on a nice afternoon while sending the Marine Band sounds out the window.

Hohner Marine Band – Cons:

• For those who use their tongue to create single notes: If you like playing single notes by using your tongue to form a u-shape that only sends air through a specific hole, the wooden holes on the Marine Band have square edges that can be a bit harsh on the tongue, especially when the harmonica is new. That’s why I like the red plastic comb in the Hohner Golden Melody for example – which seems more mellow for the tongue.
• The looks: some think the looks are too plain. If you do – the Blues Harp is basically the same harmonica as the marine band but it has a different casing with a more “muscular” look which you can check out.
• Prone to dents in the upper and lower plate covers when you’re traveling and it’s out of its case: because of a pretty thin metal cover plates that are used and because they are only held at the sides with almost no center support, if you place it in your bag or in your back pocket without its hard-shell case, you might find that it got a new dent in the casing when you’ll get up. If the dent happens to be in the area where you put the lips to play so it might be an actual problem because your lips might get stuck. This took three months of walking around with it in a bag while out of its case but eventually it happened to mine. I was still able to kinda fix it by disassembling the plate and “bending” it to the other direction but the bottom line is: don’t throw it case-less inside your bag…

That’s my old Marine Band – you can notice the dent in the upper cover plate. It took some major abuse on the travels.

Overall Verdict: 8.5

All in all, the Marine Band is a fantastic choice as a first harmonica and also for anyone who still doesn’t have one in his collection. I have a couple of them and it was my first real harmonica which drew me into this world – so I hold massive respect for this instrument.

And for dessert, here’s a very cool article I found online: How Has the Hohner Marine Band Changed Over the Years? 

Have fun!

Alon

Note: I am not endorsed by any specific harmonica company. These reviews are strictly based on my own experience and opinions.

At the end of this video (after 9:00s) I am giving some playing examples with the Marine Band, you’re welcome to check them out and also to check out the lesson if you’re new to harmonica.

Alon Cooper

Hey! My name's Cooper, I'm 28 and I'm a musician based in Tel Aviv, working with other artists as a harmonica player, guitarist and pianist. In the last few years, I traveled through four continents while performing and teaching music, and I also run the blog GuitarSongsMasters.com - one of the world's top five most-read guitar blogs. I hope to be helpful to you on your harmonica journeys. Cheers! Join 4700+ Successful Harmonica Jamz students - Play any Song and Jam with Other Musicians