Cheap, Quality Melodica

January 12, 2011 11:42 AM

What quality, relatively cheap melodica should I buy?

I need a melodica for extended dub jams and interstellar funk exploration. What should I get? The cheap Schoenhut? The Hohner S 32 (also does anyone know if there is a difference between the Hohner ST 32 and the S 32)? I'm willing to spend slightly more to upgrade from the budget models if there is a huge jump in the quality of the sound.

posted by bigspoon to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Hohner has two production facilites for Harmonicas, Accordions, and Melodicas. One German and one Chinese. Avoid the Chinese product at all costs as they will only last as long as the reeds and the Chinese reeds suck.

That being said, last I checked Hohner Chinese Melodicas were around $35 and German ones were around $100.
posted by sourwookie at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2011

When I was shopping for one, the people I talked to said just go ahead and get the Hohner S32. Feels solid, the sound was good. I've been perfectly happy with it, it has lasted a few years and it was under $50.

Some folks on reviews say it came out of the box a little out of pitch, but mine was spot on, and it should be able to be tuned by a music store that can do the folky stuff. I imagine you might run into that with any of them.

This was a comparison page i found looking to see if there was a different between S 32 and ST 32, I suspect they are the same thing sold at different times, the HM-32 is definitely different, smaller and has smaller keys.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 12:23 PM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]