I am considering the purchase of a harmonica. I have no prior experience. I am looking at the Lee Oskar major in C and the Harmo Polar in C. Any advice/ ideas would be helpful. I am sure I have a lot to learn from you.
Thanks,
NEWPLAYER
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Hi Newplayer.
I have been playing a harmonica just a very short time however makes I have heard are good are Hohner marine band, fender blues, hohner special 20 and Lee Oskar.
I’m sure there are many others too.
Checkout reviews on YouTube I found them a great way to decide and to hear the sounds for when I’m playing the way the reviews do.
Welcome by the way. 
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There are many great brands and models of harmonica out there
all of which are perfectly fine. My preference is the Hohner special 20.
It is a quality instrument and has been around for a long time.
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Hi @NEWPLAYER
Welcome to the forum.
As already mentioned by Steve @stevenlois1, The Hohner Special 20 is an excellent blues harp – not just as a first harp, but one that many advanced and professional players also use. Another good choice would be the Hohner Golden Melody.
I am not acquainted with the Harmo models and I do not know if they purchase the parts from a well-known Chinese source, so I really cannot comment on them.
Regards,
– Slim 
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Hey @NEWPLAYER - the Lee Oskar harmonicas are highly rated and sound good from what I’ve heard, though whichever harmonica you get, I’d highly recommend learning the harmonica - it’s oodles of fun and this great community will happily support you on your musical adventures.
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Hi NEWPLAYER welcome to the community, I started with a Hohner blues in C and still use it regularly although with time I have upgraded. A lot of lessons are conducted with a harp in C and Hohner special twenty seems to be popular, it also has a plastic comb which at first I thought this would not be as good as the traditional wood combs. Well now I know that these combs are really good, no swelling or distortion should be okay.
Enjoy your harp experiment with music and join up with Harmonica.com these guys know their way around and I have had nothing but great experience from the lessons
Happy harping.
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Hi @NEWPLAYER. It’s nice to see that you’re deciding to pick up the harmonica. For those harps you’re deciding on, I’ve only tried the Lee Oskar. I can tell you from experience that they’re pretty good harmonicas. I own one in High G and it’s amazing. The only issue I could find with it is that it tends to squeak on the 2 draw full step bend if you hold it for long enough. It could be my technique doesn’t fit or that it’s a higher key, but it is something to be wary of.
I started out on a C Hohner Special 20 back in 2018. It’s a workhorse and one of the best harps I’ve ever used next to the Hohner Golden Melody. I may be a bit biased towards the SP20 as it was my first pro grade harmonica, but the 20s make up most of my harp collection. It’s definitely a harp worth checking out.
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Easttop’s are good starter harps inexpensive compared to others with still a good sound. I buy these when experimenting with a new key. My first choice though is Hohners Golden Melody then Special 20’s
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Welcome @NEWPLAYER so happy to have you here. Regarding brands - nobody will be surprised to hear me say this: Lee Oskar all the way!
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