I want to give my dad a Hohner Marine Band Deluxe/Crossover for his birthday. He’s a blues enthusiast to the core, and I was wondering which key would give the most authentic blues sound. I was thinking about E or A? I’m more of an Lee Oskar melody guy , so I’m a bit unsure.
All the best 
Anders
Denmark
Start him with the C harp if he wants to seriously learn the instrument, all the keys can sound “bluesy” with proper technique and note choice. Hope this helps.
@Andersamigo
If they play along to a Blues song or backing track that’s Bluesy the harp should sound Bluesy if you find a backing track on YouTube in G and play along with a c harmonica they should get the general idea, for bending and other techniques just pop over her to this site and go through the posts there’s a lot here on various techniques
A is a great key for blues since most guitar players gravitate to key of E!
I love the sound of a low F harp. Nice and muddy :3
I agree with you. All of the harmonica keys are equally bluesy with the right combination of emotion and technique, even though I have my favorite keys, with D being my GOAT key. I got my harps to sound bluesy by using the draw bend technique and listening to A LOT of Terry McMillan. I still stand by my opinion that he was the bluesiest non-blues harmonica player because of how emotional his default playing style was.
The 12 hole Marine Band is also a good one. I like the regular Key of G one as sort of a best of both worlds. You get the 2 extra lower register holes and it sounds great. It’s also made in another 2 keys and in Low C and Low D.
I just bought the C. I need time to used to it.
The key depends on the songs he’d want to play. For most people C or A seem to be the starter kit. I prefer Bb and Eb (good with horn players) or Ab.
Hej everyone,
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge—I really appreciate it!
He already has the Marine Deluxe in C, so I decided to play it safe and picked up a Deluxe A for him.
Thanks again for the great advice—it’s a good reminder not to get too fixated on the specific key, but to focus on how you play.
All the best,
Anders
Mm being messing with the Low C and I don’t like it much. It is hard to play. Single notes go messy sometimes, It sounds like it’s leaking, The comb swells and protrudes after playing a while. Probably will not persist with this one.
I did like the tone of it but It’s just too hard.
What brand did ya get Toooooog?
12 hole Marine band with wooden comb
It’s okay to get a little messy sometimes.
Keep It To Yourself
woooooo hooooooo nice one @BnT. Thanks for sharing. Hadn’t seen that one before! And here I thought this riff was a Jerry Portnoy riff!!
The Whammer Jammer riff comes from Sonny II as well!
Godfather.
Well well thats really messy. I tried the sideways thing. Then had to wash the harp. All good fun. I think when you’re famous you can get away with a lot. If I played to my couple of long suffering friends like that theyd say ’ don’t give up your day job’. But I get the point and thanks for reminding me to get messy. I do enjoy getn messy.
For me I’d say an A, G or C 
