Great Article on Marine Bands
Don't know if this has been posted before, but here's a great article about Hohner Marine Bands, their decline in quality, the company's near bankruptcy, the automation of the 90's, and ultimate return to quality, hand-crafted production. Lee Oskar, Joe Filisko and Kinya Pollard feature prominently in the article as well. Although centered on Hohner and the Marine Band line, it's really a great article about harmonicas during the Rock age and after the golden age of Blues.
Ace, thanks posting about this article. Interesting read.
Episode 34 of the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast, Neil interviews Steve Baker who I believe had a little to do with Hohner’s return to quality harmonicas. I found this interview interesting as well.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-baker-interview/id1507608445?i=1000512939564
Brian in Tennessee
I'll check it out later today.
Thanks for posting the article link. It was very interesting! I‘ve only been learning to play the harmonica for about a month. I am pretty terrible at it but find it so much fun. I am also amazed at how in-depth the instrument and its history is!
Brian: Thanks for the tip about Neil Warren's great podcast series. I've already listened to a few of them, and have them all downloaded. Well worth the listen!
Thanks, Ace. The Hohner quality improvement story is pretty amazing. Very few manufacturing companies would reach out to critical customers and invite them to come on board, tell them why their products had started to stink, and then used them as consultants to help them improve. But that's exactly what Hohner did with Steve Baker, Joe Filisko, and a bunch of other great players. And the result is obvious by the number of players who talk about how good so many of their purchased Hohner harps sound right OOTB.