Musicians: Is there a commonly used harmonica?

Hohner is the name that immediately comes to mind.

I’m sorry that this is most likely, most certainly not the answer you’re looking for but this is my favorite harmonica in the whole world. The Hohner mini harmonica:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JCUmCLBbL.jpg

I was visiting my Austin, TX, where I used to live and my friend Laura hustled me off to a local music store and insisted on buying me a mini-harmonica. It is my good luck charm. At the very least you need a Hohner mini-harmonica,swinging from your key chain or in your purse or in your pocket just to remind you that you need a decent harmonica and that there are people in the world that love you. :-)

@lillycoyote the mini’s are really charming! But because it covers only one octave it’s tough to play much more than simple tunes on it.—I have a minor key mini I use to hail my companions when hiking or skiing. It’s a hoot and way more than nothing.

Note that most of the time people are using ‘diatonic’ tuned harmonicas. That tuning has the disadvantage of missing a couple notes from the ordinary scale, but the advantage that adjacent notes are always compatible on blow or draw.

Hohners are very popular and plenty of professionals still use the MarineBand and BluesHarp models with the wood comb between the holes. You can get a classic blues sound out of these easily.

There are all sorts of problems with the wood comb styles. Those harps are toward the lower end of Hohner’s offerings and the reeds are not the highest quality. You may find yourself doing frequent maintenance on the reeds to keep them working, especially if you really wail on them. But that’s hard to do and you can end up getting a new one regularly.
I find the wood combs annoying because they swell and distort a bit with (inevitable) saliva so they can lose the seal between notes and they can stick out a bit and tear up your tongue and lips.

In the Hohner line my favorite is the Special20, which is in their MarineBand line but has a plastic comb and superior reeds. A lot of pros will use these for those two reasons.
Some folks like the Hohner CrossHarp, which has the added advantage of reeds that seem to stay truer to the note and replaceable reed plates, but it is just not as loud as most harps and it’s hard to really wail a note out there with one of these.

There are a few other makers of popular harmonicas. I have several Lee Oskar which not only have a great sound, they are built so you can replace the reed plates if needed… so you don’t have to buy a whole new harp. I have changed out the plates on my G and C harps multiple times.

Suzuki is emerging as a good brand lately. Some of my favorite YouTube players are using these all the time. I don’t have one of those yet but I have an Overdrive. Not only is it an exotic tuned-port style (you have to hold it carefully to avoid blocking the ports), the one I have is a low-F, and the thing really puts out a great low sound.

@dabbler I couldn’t have said it better! I have played for nearly 40 years and, while I love wooden combs right out of the box, they have a limited shelf life. I also had a chromatic for years and found I preferred having harps in the keys I needed without fussing with moving parts.

@Kayak8 True about the chromatic harp. I inherited one from my dad (never heard him play it, it was stuffed in a drawer) and while it’s an impressive machine and sounds great it takes too much thinkin’ for my style of play.

Speaking of harmonicas, some of the best musicians and their songs, used Hohner in their studio recordings.

They were: The Three Suns, Charlie McCoy, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters.

Jimmy Reed’s Big Boss Man (the original) is a classic example.

Their music is on Youtube.

@john65pennington Yep, the two pros I know are using Special20’s. And my favorite instructor is often using a good ole MarineBand.

@john65pennington

You forgot Little Walter.

And you forgot Sonny Boy Williamson

And James Cotton. I know you like this song, @john65pennington

You mentioned it once and I remembered because Rocket 88 is one of my favorite songs too though I’m not sure what version you like.

Anyway, too many great harp players to mention or post them all, though I may have a Kim Wilson one later, if I can’t control myself.

Personally, I like the Hohner Golden Melody. It is much easier to hold in your hands than rectangular harps. It’s easier to bend notes and do the other stuff harp players like to do.

I think the first harp you get should probably be in the key of C. Then F. Then the others depend on what kind of playing you are doing and what keys the people you play with tend to play in. I also have and F# and a Bb.

Harmonica is not my major instrument. It’s just something I play when all the other instruments don’t necessarily fit into what we are doing at the time. But I do enjoy it, and I had one my two best musical experiences of my life on it.

@wundayatta The Golden Melody has a bigger shell volume.
I have one of those in G and find its sound stays fairly sweet even when loud.
If you’re trying to get a nasty blues sound out of the GoldenMelody that’s harder than with the ‘rectangular harps’.
I’d add G to a list of harps to get early on. C,F,G…