Hohner The 64 Chromonica Chromatic Harmonica, Key of C

Or if not the best, at least a really good harp like the Chromatica 280 C. I'm a beginning harmonica player with 15 years of musical instruction and 30 years of playing piano, clarinet, and guitar under my belt. My musical bent turns mostly toward classical with a bit of gospel, so I searched for almost a year to find the "right" harp (as harmonicas are called). I decided not to waste money on a less expensive instrument because I figured from all I've read the 280 C can grow with me, or rather, the better I learn to play it, the better the music from it. Just like the other three I've learned to play. The advantages for me over the other instruments are that I can take it anywhere, play almost any sort of music on it, and play a wider range of music because of its 4-octave reach. Being in the key of C doesn't matter, either, because the slide will enable me to play in all the keys I can learn. Unlike the diatonic harps I won't need to buy other harmonicas to play in other keys. I figure this harmonica will be as good as I can play, and thanks to a couple of great harmonica books, it already sounds better than when I first picked it up a little over a month ago. The books are The Chromatic Harmonica Method by Max De Aloe, and Harmonic for Dummies by Winslow Yerxa. With this combo of books and instrument, the only limitations on where I can go musically are my own.

I studied and studied reviews before splurging on this one. This is Day 1 for me, it's just out of the box at this point. It's humongous, but I wanted the four octaves, I simply do not like jumping octaves to complete a piece. Here's what I wanted to know and wasn't sure of from what I read. Are any of the notes hard to play? No, and I'm a 61 yr. old grandma. They are just as smooth as silk, and that low C is amazing. I can notice that this one, like all new harps, will need some breaking in, there's an occasional buzz, but I know from having several small diatonics that this too shall pass. Is the slide mechanism smooth? Yes, easy to use. You can even do hand cupping technique, tho awkward, it's not difficult.If you aren't sure about the size of this monster, look it up on Youtube, and see it in action. It isn't your traditional little harmonica that you can stick in your pocket.Lastly I should say I'm just an amateur, not very good, and yet, I do not feel overwhelmed by this instrument. You can easily play your beginners' tunes, adding a few accidentals here and there, before going on to attempt mastering this marvelous instrument.

My brother asked me to buy him a Hohner Chromonica. He has played harmonicas and Chromonicas (Hohner) for over 50 years. I purchased the Hohner Chromonica and it's defective. I reached out to the vendor to get either a refund or for them to repair the Chromonica and instead, they pasted a canned response from an FAQ page that deals with people who are new to playing the Chromonica which, as I mentioned, my brother is not. They refuse to take the instrument back and they refuse to repair it. This is how low the Hohner brand customer service has become.

The Hohner 64 Chromonica (16 holes) has the Hohner trademark sound. It sounds great, clear, bright and smooth. The look is classical. But the harmonica came with a broken case and hole dot 4, hole 1, 2 played no sound. I contacted Hohner via its Website. I was frustrated.I watched YouTube Hohner Service Workshop on making adjustment on the reeds to make it playable without success. Then, Hohner USA contacted me and asked me to send the harmonica to its reed service under warranty to repair. I just got it back yesterday. The sound problem is fixed but these holes are not responsive and the sound is terrible compared to the rest of the holes. I spent three hours making adjustment myself. It has gotten much better. I will continue to make small adjustment as little as possible each day (small adjustment is better than doing too much).The windsavers on some holes also have issues, too. Occasionally I will hear the buzz sound. Another problem as I just found out after played for 4 hours, my mouth and lips became swollen because the 64 Chromonica’s mouthpiece is brass with nickel plate. I am allergic to nickel.I love the sound comes out the harmonica. I can’t explain but it is different than the Suzuki SCX even though I also like the Suzuki SCX, I love the sound of Hohner 64 Chromonica better and looks of the harmonica.I ordered a Hohner Super 64X. The Super 64X has stainless steel mouthpiece coated with premium materials, no nickel no worries. Heard the sound volume comes out of the Super 64X is much bigger, richer due its double reed structure. Hope every hole works. Fingers crossed.Updates on Hohner Super 64X:The Super 64X came in excellent condition. Nothing was broken and fir the first time of my entire Hohner chromatic harmonicas purchase experience, this one, every single hole works and sounds awesome. The slider is very quiet and smooth. The sound comes out especially from the low octave is very good. The Super 64X came with a very nice zipper case and a Phillips screwdriver in the case, which is very nice and handy. The harmonica felt pretty substantial in weight (much heavier than most), I got used to pretty quickly without problem. The sound from the Super 64X is a little darker than the 64 Chromonica but I definitely noticed the quality is f the sound cons from the Super 64X is on another level than the 64 Chromonica. The Super 64X costs much more than the 64 Chromonica. The Super 64X is a professional performance model. If money is not a big issue, the Super 64X is a better choice.

I have been using the Super 64’s for nearly 20 years. I decided to try one of these after the super 64 began to go out of tune. I actually like this harmonica better than the super and will use these from now on.

I don’t know how my last review didn’t meet Amazon’s community guidelines. Pretty much all I said was that I liked it and I didn’t have any problems with it. Except I went into detail. And I had a video as well. That was about 4 minutes long.

Seems like a good instrument… I am having issues with the draw on number 2. The overall sound is as expected