I actually have a little update regarding my quest to acquire every key of the Golden Melody. I just ordered an NOS Gen-1 Golden Melody in Ab a few days ago. It should be arriving soon. I personally like both versions of that harp, but I know that some people prefer one over the other and that’s okay.
My philosophy when it comes to the harmonica is that it’s a very personal instrument and that you should use/play what’s best for what your goals are. For me, I like to prioritize comfort over traditions and trends. The ergonomic design of both Golden Melody models was what drew me into buying my first one of them back in 2020.
I grew to love them as I continued using those harps, especially since I love the rugged sounding chords and the sweet, raspy tone it has compared to something like the Special 20. The legacy thing with Terry McMillan kinda helped shaped my love for the model too (his harmonica of choice was the Golden Melody and he could really make them wail whenever he played the blues). A lot of people like to use them for overblow playing because of how responsive the reeds are, even without modifications, which is why you would see people like Howard Levy or Todd Parrott use them. It’s just generally an amazing harmonica that’s incredibly versatile.
The only bad thing about playing Golden Melodies, really, is the stigma surrounding them being “not made for blues”. There is always that one person who will say that in any post made about those harps, with some people disregarding the Equal Temperment intonation style for blues altogether because they aren’t tuned like a vintage Marine Band. Temperment and intonation on a harmonica is basically how a set of pitches are tuned to sound together, with Just Intonation focusing on a chordal sound meanwhile Equal Temperment is more focused on the single notes. Although most instruments (usually with keyboards and fretted stringed instruments like guitars) are tuned to Equal Temperment out of the factory, some people like James Taylor prefer to slightly adjust the intonation to fit their personal sonic needs, just because they like the sound of that intonation more,
But for some reason, harmonica players can get very emotional in regards to Equal Temperment. They like to say that because it’s not tuned like a Marine Band, that it sucks or claim it’s a different tuning layout from standard richter tuning (the Golden Melody is a equal tempered, richter tuned harmonica). A lot of harmonica players online are afraid to try anything new and hate what they don’t understand (hell, I knew somebody who thought the Hohner Rocket was made in China and the Rocket Amp wasn’t, despite both clearly being marked as made in Germany), so they’ll try their hardest to tell you that you have to play like them. I know this because of personal experiences with people like that. In such cases, I’ll just let my harmonica playing do all the talking for me to prove them wrong.