Another serious question, I’ve often seen references to the look of various harmonicas especially in advertisements and reviews. Considering that when it’s cupped a harp is practically invisible and on stage it’s too small to be clearly seen, how important to forum players is the look of a harp? Jay1
8 Likes
I think this is a “shouldn’t matter but does” because we’re all human and we can’t help ourselves part of the whole thing.
4 Likes
The look is not important to me — Im not saying that couldn’t change at some point for some reason.
For now it’s all about how it feels in my hand, on my lips and how it sounds.
As with most things I purchase (Even Clothing) its about functionality not aesthetics.
Great post @Jay1
Mike
6 Likes
for me personally, I dislike the bright plastic parts of some harmonicas and prefer silver+black combinations or muted stylish colors (for example, I have the seydel session standard, and even though the session steel is more expensive it looks “cheaper” because of the bright colors).
6 Likes
Interesting responses when many harmonica reviews have terms like ‘beautiful appearance’ ; ‘good looking’ ; ‘stunning looks’ etc. Assuming at least some reviews are by genuine buyers. I’ve even seen one review with ‘very smart nice looking harp but I’ve not played it yet’. Hope to get some more comments. Jay1
6 Likes
Hmmm I don’t think I’ve ever considered that, as you say they are virtually invisible on stage, although I must admit to having seen some beautiful combs that are almost as much as a new harp to buy? And I’ve always thought yeah they look nice but unless they are ultra air tight what’s the point? I know some customizers make their own combs but they make them specifically to function better with the reed plates fitting exactly. But at the end of the day it’s not what it looks like surely it’s what it sounds like?
4 Likes
I have a ‘thing’ about advertising of any sort that is geared to adding unnecessary ‘value’. I also hate the £49:99 rather than the honest £50:00 price tags. Do advertising people think we’re stupid? I wondered if making a show of looks for harmonicas falls within that category or if others feel it’s important. Could it be that those who buy a lot of harmonicas (collect?) rather than those who only buy those that are necessary are interested in how harps look? Do new players think looks are important? Or could as @yuriythebest put it some looks give the impression of looking cheaper or more expensive? I also wonder if the name of some well known person on the cover plate or box makes a harp more attractive? Are these ‘named’ harmonicas any different? This sort of goes back to my If Lamborghini sold harmonicas would you buy one?. Jay1
3 Likes
I wanted to expand a bit, and also to clarify that I’m a beginner player on my first harp. You are going to be using this harp and in close contact with it for long periods of time, and similar to a wristwatch it might as well look appealing to YOU since that’s important as well for “sticking with it”, so to speak. My seydel session standard is like 30USD, so I’m not saying too spend loads of cash, as various youtubers said just don’t buy a cheapo 5USD harp, anything 30USD and up should be ok.
4 Likes
My wife says no! 
3 Likes
When I first bought my first Hohner Golden Melody back in 2020 and when drew me in original was not because Terry McMillan played them, but I thought the design looked cute. The whole legacy thing kinda kicked during the later parts of the 2020 pandemic that I want to take this “sounding like Terry” thing seriously and decided to let them be my harmonica of choice. I love playing them so much, but almost everybody that I saw on Facebook hated them because of the tuning. One guy to go as far as saying that if I play them in a band setting, the band member would tell me to switch harmonicas because he thought the Golden Melody’s equal temperment tuning is “out of tune” for a band situation compared to his Marine Bands. But recently, I played my 2023 Golden Melody in A with a cover band and nobody complained at all when it came to the equal temperment tuning on my harmonica. Kinda shows him to be in the wrong.
I went looking for the Suzuki Bluesmaster because I wanted a similar vibe to the Golden Melody back when I was skeptical about the redesign. I heard some good things about it, but mainly a lot of bad things about it (sense a theme, yet?). I was always interested in that harp, but I didn’t know it was so controversial. Same thing with the Seydel Session Steel. I did a positive review of it and a few people were egging on me for liking them because they “played horribly”. I don’t know if that’s a testimony for how lucky I am with OOTB harmonica or how I like the most controversial harmonicas on the planet.
The things I usually look for in my choice of harmonicas are 1. Are they in equal temperment tuning?; and 2. Do they have full length covers? The full length covers to me provide a more mellow sound, but have a lot of projection in the back. This helps a lot with the higher keys to not sound so shrill. This is also why I love the Golden Melody and Bluesmaster as I can do my rakes on them without reaching the sharp edge on the coverplate.
2 Likes
I like it when looks display quality, in finish and detail. Like in all things, looks doesn’t automatically equate quality, but when you do buy quality that also looks good, I’m always up for that.
3 Likes
Looks aren’t particularly important to me but I do love whatever that black coating is on my old Honer CrossHarp. it just feels smoother on my lips. (it does look awesome also BTW 
)
3 Likes
I’m out of the country for a while from tomorrow and need to concentrate on the ‘day job’ please keep the responses coming, I’ll look forward to seeing them when I get back Jay1
4 Likes
Great thread, and great topic.
I like this response, by @Piglet
While some of us are more focused on looks and others on sound, in the end, we can’t help ourselves from being influenced by how they look to some extent.
After starting with an Easttop 008k, which I loved, I decided to try different harps from different companies. One of the complaints I heard from many people is how difficult it is to identify the key on poorly marked harps. As such, I thought it would be much easier to just have different harps for each key to test several out.
I brought the kids together for a family photo 
Having different styles and colors makes it easy to find my “Harp for the Day”, which goes as follows:
Monday - Lee Oskar - A
Tuesday - Rocket - Ab
Wednesday - Baby Fat - Bb
Easttop 008k - Bb
Thursday - Golden Melody - C
Friday - Special 20 - Db
Saturday - Conjurer - G
Sunday - Golden Melody - C
For now, I repeat my Golden Melody on Sundays, until I get a new harp
While they all sound a bit different, I’ve noticed each has its own character:
The Lee Oskar does well up and down, though is a bit more challenging on the bends for me.
The Rocket 
has the most Bad Ass Sound on the low end and plays well throughout.
The Baby Fat makes up for my blown 4 blow on my Easttop 008k and both sound pretty decent.
My Special 20 in Db, also known as Oops, was my previous favorite harp, but she blew the 4 draw while I was playing her signature song, SHOWTIME, the other day when I realized the song has exactly 212 notes, which for some reason seems significant to me, but I’m not sure why.
The Conjurer is my cheapest harp, costing just over $10 and is surprisingly good, except for a 7 blow, which just seems a bit off to me, though it measures well on the Bend-it tool
The prettiest harps for me are the Golden Melody and The Conjurer, which also both feel very good in my hands. The Easttop 008k is beefy and feels solid, with its sleek black on silver finish. The Baby Fat is just plain cute and very discreet in most circumstances.
So for me, I would say that yes, LOOKS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, but it is the SOUND that causes our pulse to quicken, and sends our soul to soar.
6 Likes
Well, I’m a relative newbie, having started about two years ago with the usual Hohner Blues route, then based on Luke’s description I went for the Marine Band. Even though there’s not that much of a difference in looks, the Marine Band somehow feels better. BUT… then I went nuts and splurged on the ARKIA signature Jérôme Peyrelevade model and things were never quite the same again. Mind you, it is no less than 3x, almost 4x the price but the way it feels, looks and sounds is out of this world. And no, they’re not paying me for this 
!
Have a Great Weekend Everyone! Cheers, John
6 Likes
I have Arkia Signatures in C and A and agree, they are by far the best harps I have. I’m currently enjoying my new Joe Spiers Marine Band and the jury is currently out on which one is better but if we are going purely on looks there is no contest. Arkia’s are a thing of beauty for sure
5 Likes
Yes, I think that looks matter to all of us to varying degrees. We can’t help it, it’s in our DNA. You make a good point about it being almost invisible to an audience, but its visible to us and we place some value in it. Fishing is one of my hobbies, and I know that lures catch more fisherman than fish. We build up collections of pretty colours but the fish see something different.
4 Likes
@Jay1 YES! LOOKS MATTER! Well, maybe they don’t matter to the audience, but they matter to ME! I didn’t know this, until I bought some custom Todd Parrott combs, and discovered that I was super inspired every time I grabbed one.
Now, granted, they’re also custom Joe Spiers harmonicas that play and sound out of this world, so that doesn’t hurt the inspiration, But PART of it is definitely the loos as well.
At church on Sunday I played a harmonica solo on Precious Lord, and I forgot my Spiers harp, but I had a Lee Oskar, so I played that. Could the congregation tell the difference? No way. But I could.
These are the subtleties of the mystical musical life. How do you even define or quantify inspiration? Maybe you can’t, really.
But it matters. And I’ve discovered that even the look of our instruements can play into that.
4 Likes
Absolutely. I’m guessing many of us are also guitarists and its never more exemplified than with guitars. Why do we search for that perfectly book matched top or hanker after a gold top, or agonise over maple or rosewood fingerboards, bird or moon inlays, gold or silver hardware? It’s all about tone right? Yeah right. As Luke says, all 90% of the audience see is the guitar, they dont even know what sunburst means.
2 Likes
Thanks to everyone who responded to my original question. All the comments and opinions are really valid and very interesting. Jay1