Hohner has a line of harmonicas they call the Enthusiast Series. Here’s a list, along with today’s prices:
[ul][li]American Ace, $14.99[/li][li] Blues Band, $6.99[/li][li] Blues Bender, $23.99[/li][li] Hot Metal, $12.99[/li][li] Old Standby, $12.99[/li][li] Pocket Pal, $13.99[/ul][/li]
NB: I can’t play. Well, I can pick out tunes (I’ve taught myself Re-enlitment Blues as well as I can remember it without looking it up), but I can’t actually play, if you follow. So I’m in no position to judge these instruments.
Not all of these appear on the Hohner website, so some must have been discontinued in the last couple/few years.
From what I can see now, and from what I remember from the Hohner website a few years ago, all of these harmonicas have plastic combs, metal covers, brass reeds of the same specifications, and are made in China. The Blues Bender seems to have different-shaped covers. All of these harmonicas ‘leak’, and the quality is not as good as the more expensive German Hohners. But I can pick out a tune on the cheapest one (Blues Band), so they’re actually playable.
Here’s the question: Are these models actually different? Or are they all the same except for the cover art (or shape, in the case of the Blues Bender)?
Looking at the Blues Band and Blues Bender (the cheapest and most expensive), there’s at least one difference: the blues band has reeds 0.9 mm thick, while the bender’s reeds are 1.0 mm thick. So they’re definitely different models. I’m not sure what other differences they have, or how significant that difference is, though.
I have all of them. As I said, I can’t really play. I carry a Special 20 in my backpack, and I have a set of Marine Bands that was useful when I took some lessons because of the different keys. While I really dig cheap things that work, the Special 20 is a better choice for a learning because it’s not leaky like the cheap ones.
I remember when I was getting into harps. For what seemed like forever, I had only cheap plastic-combed models. I finally found and bought a Marine Band. . .and was disappointed. After that, I stuck with plastic-combs. The wood just added a variable I didn’t need to mess with. It’s been years since I dragged them out, but i remember loving my Delta Frost. Not sure they’re even in business anymore. Suppose I could google them. . . yup. Still in business. Suzuki made some nice harps with plastic combs.
I remember having Hot Metals and an Old Standby. Harps back then seemed hit or miss. Even when buying Marine Bands, pretty much the standard for Rock and Blues harp, people would hope they’d get a ‘good one’. Quality control, I guess. For some strange reason, I had a Pocket Pal in C that I loved above all others until I found the Delta Frost.
There’s nothing wrong with plastic-combed models. I don’t play so much anymore, but my favorite harmonicas are Special 20s and Golden Melodies, both plastic-combed. I started with wood-combed harmonicas like the Marine Band and Blues Harp, but ended up far preferring the plastic-combed ones for how they felt in my mouth and I didn’t notice the wood-combed ones having much better tone or anything.
To me, the biggest thing about how a harmonica plays is how well-sealed/engineered to close tolerances it is (not exactly “air tight,” but there’s harps that feel “leaky” in regards to breath and others that feel “tight”), how well the reeds are gapped (though you can adjust gapping yourself, which I often did), and just in general how “responsive” they are. Cheap harmonicas I feel like I have to blow harder on to get a note, the tone is thin, and bending is much more difficult because they’re not gapped well and in general feel “leaky.” With a good harp like the Special 20 and Golden Melody, I feel like I don’t have to blow or draw as hard, and it feels like every bit of my breath is being used to produce sound and not being wasted, and bends are easy to control and maintain.
But I don’t know specifically about the models in the OP.
Somewhere I have a ‘vintage’ Old Standby. I may have a vintage Pocket Pal, too; but I don’t remember. I reckoned I’d try it (them) out when I felt I could actually play, just to see how it (they) compared to new ones.
I carry a Special 20 with me. I think it’s the perfect beginner’s harmonica, as well as being the choice of many accomplished harpists.
Even I can tell the difference between the cheap ones and the good ones. I bought a Marine Band in the '80s, but never pursued it. I wish I could find it, but it’s in the storage unit somewhere. Sometime after I moved up here, I saw a Blues Band at the corner market for $4.95. Why not? I played When The Saints Go Marching In and Oh, Susanna and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the like, and I thought it played very well. It was only after buying a Special 20, which cost five times as much, that I realized how leaky the Blues Band is. The Blues Band takes more air to play, and the sound is, as you say, thin.
I bought the ones in the OP because I appreciate cheap things that work. The Blues Band worked very well until I knew better, and I still keep one in each car, one in my Cheap Harmonicas collection, and one more just in case someone needs it. I like the art on the covers of the others, but I really can’t tell them apart, playing-wise. I just like thinking about some kid in the early-‘70s going to the general store near his grandparents’ place, and picking up a Pocket Pal or whatever from the toy rack.
(Speaking of toys, I bought the Piedmont Blues set just so I’d have a case to keep the Cheap Harmonica collection in. I put the Piedmont Blues harps into zip-top bags with a note saying what key each is, and tacked them to the telephone pole in front of the house with a ‘Free Toy Harmonicas’ sign.)