I gave up on the old marine band when they were in their bad patch days and swopped over to L/Os which were the only other readily available harps here then. Times have changed and Hohner seem to have got their mojo back so i thought maybe its time to try them out again. So i ordered a few new harps from Rockin' Ron and included a "Crossover' in the order. What a nice harp!Played well OOTB ,except for 3 draw bends.But that could just be my individual style and as i always gap (and selectively emboss)any new harp it wasn't a problem and only took a couple of tries to get 3 draw purrfect. Nice looking,has that marine bandish bite and is an all round very nice harmonica. Hohner,i am back in the fold.
I ordered a crossover from Musician's Friend a couple days ago when they were $37.99 with free shipping, but they don't ship til mid December. I sure hope I'm not disappointed what with virtually everyone who has tried one seems to rave about it - or at least likes it. I've been playing GM's, but HAVE to try a crossover, but not at $65+/-. Anyway, welcome back(?). (Really, it doesn't matter what harp anyone plays, if they like it).
I like mine. I broke my key of A Crossover through a clumsy slip while gapping it. I bugged me to have thos great harp with a broken reed and i eventually sent it to MP for repair. In the meantime I got used to playing my other Marine Band A harps, deluxe and 1896. They are all cool harps, but when Mark fixed my Crossover it became my firm favourite again pretty quickly. I have them in G, C and D too. Love 'em all. I've heard they're even better with a hetrick comb, but I think mine are great as they are. Maybe I'll get one o' them fan dangled custom combs though, and see what it's like... ----------
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2012 1:29 AM
They've come along way since their garbage quality years of 1981-1995. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@Bob Why is 1981 the year Hohner started making bad harps? I know in 95' they spent a lot of money, retooled and started using different brass, but did something happen in 1981 that changed from previous years?
That was around the time that the last Hohner in the company was gone and they were owned by the banks and were actually teetering on bankruptcy, PLUS, and this one thing that was confirmed to me by Rick Epping, the Hohner project manager inhat should be noted was when they changed the way they paid their workers at the factory. Whereas there was once an hourly wage, they changed it to piece work, and for those not familiar with that, in order to push out more product at a faster rate, you're getting paid by the number if instruments you're putting out by the day, which is closer to slave/sweatshop wages and I remember while in high school vacation, I spent 3 weeks working in a garment factory that paid their workers on the lines making the clothes (and really cheapo quality stuff at that), having to do exactly that and what happens far too often is that it's quality be damned. Now when you think about this and put it in the perspective of putting out 1000 harmonicas per hour, plus that kind of pay, you can quickly get the idea why the quality slipped.
Another reason was that many of the families of the previous generations of people doing the the tuning, who had perfect pitch hearing, were also forced to worked for these kind of wages, and that job can be quite tedious, and so the newer generation of those families no longer wanted to do this kind of work, so they hired tons of young women who were often very poorly trained at the job and so the inconsistencies went up dramatically, plus they are NOT allowed to use a tunere putting out by the day, which is closer to slave/sweatshop wages and I remember while in high school vacation, I spent 3 weeks working in a garment factory that paid their workers on the lines making the clothes (and really cheapo quality stuff at that), having to do exactly that and what happens far too often is that it's quality be damned. Now when you think about this and put it in the perspective of putting out 1000 harmonicas per hour, plus that kind of pay, you can quickly get the idea why the quality slipped.
Another reason was that many of the families of the previous generations of people doing the the tuning, who had perfect pitch hearing, were also forced to worked for these kind of wages, and that job can be quite tedious, and so the newer generation of those families no longer wanted to do this kind of work, so they hired tons of young women who were often very poorly trained at the job and so the inconsistencies went up dramatically, plus they are NOT allowed to use a tuner, just their ears and a reference plate, and that's it, and the most they're allowed to spend on tuning was a grand total of exactly 5 minutes per harmonica.
So the slip, for me, started to happen in 1981, really worsened by 1985, but Joe Filisko actually has tracedc back the slide even further than that, at somewhere around the mid 60's. I can tell you for a fact that any Hohner harp made during the 70's were a far superior instrument than what was being put out from 1981-1995, and that still doesn't even take the pre-WWII stuff into consideration. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
The current Marine Band is the best Marine Band ever. The Crossover and Deluxe are fantastic harps.
I prefer the XO out of the three for the open covers, tuning, and rounded tines (although I don't use stock combs), but I could gig with OOTB Marine Bands easily.
Jump to about 5min to hear Joe Filisko speak about my favorite harmonica.
The open covers is more like the way the pre-WWII Marine Bands always used to be and since 1981, they've been considerably less open and the more open the covers are, the louder and brighter the harps tend to be in the many years I've played them and customizers open them up as a matter of course for the same reason. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Interesting! Thanks Bob!! I think the harmonicas made from 1995 to 2004 sound very similiar to the prewar and were very responsive like the new harps. The harps being made now are probably the easiest to play that have ever been made. The quality control of the new Hohners is absolutly awsome! I wish they would go back to the 95 - 04 style, but that's just me!
From 1995 to 2004, they began to tighten the slot tolerances, sharpen their cutting blades much more frequently, made sure that the covers are much more properly aligned, plus a common problem from their bad period was that the reeds often weren't flush flat on the plate and from their bad period, in almost every harp I bought, I had to do a trick Frank Huang told me while he was still a harp tech for Hohner, and that's get a tack hammer and a nail set and lightly tap down on the rivet so the reed is fully flush flat on the plate and now you rarely ever have to do that.
In their bad days the reeds were often not properly centered in the slot and the riveting jobs were terrible and often quite cockeyed.
From 1995-2004, they also went back to using a softer brass. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
the marine bands I bought back then had bad comb swelling....I was always scraping dead skin out of the tines causing them to shift...the wood became soft and probably rotted a bit...bought a new one recently...very happy with it
From that long conversation on the phone I had with Rick Epping, the main reason for the comb swelling a lot as you described is when wood that was being used on it was cut too close to the knot of the tree. All the very newest stock all have 100% fully sealed combs so swelling should be totally out of the picture now. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I got opened up a C MB last night for a customer...as in I took it out of the box. Straight OOTB and it was stage ready for a blues player. It sounded awesome and played great - even when bending holes 1-6.
Was it perfect? No. Did it OB? No. But it played at least as well as ANY OOTB harp on the market.
I've grown very fond of the MB "sound" in addition to the playability. When customizing a harmonica, it is really easy to lose some of that feel in order to accomplish other goals. With the current MB line being so rock solid, it is easier to keep that foundation in tact. ---------- Mike OOTB Harmonica Price List VHT Special 6 Mods Note Layout Comparisons Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas (Updated 10/25/12)
1981-1995, Pretty important years in my learning, much of it spent ($) hoping I'd get lucky when I bought a new MB. Bunch a crap. I switched around 97 to the MS blues harp when they got decent and have used them regularly since then. Most are now replaced with deluxes and slowly the crossovers. New territory, finally.
i gig with pre war MBs, Crossovers, MBDs, and some souped up SPs. most of my main keys are MB types.
i have a few GMs i feel like gigging w/ but never take w/ me. they are really good and have after market combs. there is just something about the MB sound that grabs me. i'll take those GMs out one of these days.
---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
All of my pre-WWII MB's stay one place, and that's in my house. Having them possibly stolen is not something I want to deal with. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I switched over to Lee Oskar's in the late 80's because I was going through Hohners like potatoe chips. IIRC I was mainly buying Blues Harps, Special 20's and GM's. Somehow, I skipped over Marine Bands, but I did try a 365 and I think it is the C I still have today.
I am back trying Hohners again with a few of the MS series offerings another 365(G) and a SBS 365(A). I have not got around to an XO yet or a Thunderbird but they are coming.
Before I came back to Hohners there was some Suzuki experimentatation and I still drift over there from time to time. I have also started adding a Huang to every mail order just for the hell of it. I tried a Johnson too, but it was just a little too leaky. I siliconed it, which sealed up the leaks, but it tastes kinda funny.
And then there is the S/S Seydel(A).
I think we may be living in the greatest time yet, for harmonicas.
With the growth of customizers and greater competition, things have gotten better as standards have been raised. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
"yo mark tell me about your mouse ear marine bands....as I have said before....I dont understand....LOL.."
morning groyster! i'm going to take you literally because they are painting the house today and so i left without enough coffee to think straight.
mouse ear MBs are the earliest MBs and have double tab cover plate flaps that look like well..mouse ears.
i only have two. one is a C i re-built for my late significant other that stays in her special place.
the other is a D i've retired unless i want to play Walter Hortons signature solo on Jimmy Rodgers Walking By Myself. it is one of the very few harps i keep tuned to its vintage 7LJI tuning.
i have a few single tab pre-war MBs and they are warm and beautiful sounding. i think the mouse ears sound even warmer. in my opinion it is when you play older harps in higher keys (in this case D) that one really notices tonal differences between older and modern brass.
i'm sure BBQBob has a theory on the why. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info- repair videos on YouTube. you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
I regret that I abandoned marine bands for the above reasons and went to sp20s...bought the commemorative model in 1996 and it was so bad I said never again but some of these NOS I have got on ebay have been remarkable harps...there was just too much legendary harp music played on these harps to have ever formed the opinion I had...never say never
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2012 1:29 AM