Review of Hering 1923 Vintage Harp (Harmonica)

I've been playing harmonica for nearly 20 years, and you'd think that I'd be happy with my equipment. Something's wired wrong in a musician's mind that makes them constantly and perpetually look for better tone than they currently have. Instead of looking within, which is where all tone comes from, we hope to find that magic configuration or combination that will satisfy this urge for perfect tone.

It's this mythical search that keeps me trying out new harmonicas, even though I am thoroughly devoted to Hohner's Marine Band Harmonica (Model 1896). It's basically the same harmonica that the greats from the 40's, 50's and 60's used, so it's good enough for me.

When I learned that Hohner used to own Hering Harmonicas in Brazil, and that a group of investors had bought Hering from Hohner with the intention of restoring the brand to it's heyday 60's glory, I had to give them a try. A quick search showed me that the model most closely related to my Hohner Marine Band was the Hering 1923 Vintage Harp. The picture even resembled the Hohner competitor. While my devotion to Hohner is due to tone, the build quality has suffered and varied over the years. Most people don't realize that a harmonica player can only use a harmonica for around a month when playing every day until the harmonica suffers from metal fatigue causing the reeds to go out of key, or fail altogether. We replace them like guitar players replace strings, so we have ample opportunity to try out a new instrument. Other musicians don't have that luxury. The essence of my search has been to find a harmonica that delivers good tone, but has superior build quality over the Marine Band 1896. Hohner even knows this build quality is poor, which is why the Marine Band 2005 is offered, but costs more than twice as much as a standard Marine Band. This was my quest.