HohnerHarmonica Holder (HH01)

Easy to adjust and use

This is by far the best there is out there , ease of installing the harmonica , comfort , no sliding or lose nuts it will stay in place , the adjustments are superb . Simply put buy it younwont regreat it a bit .

This particular rack, the HH01, was new to me. I had seen it in photos being used by good players, and I am unhappy overall with the much-more-expensive MZ 2010 because of its bulk, resembling a traction harness for a broken neck combined with an orthodontic appliance, and because of its bevel-lock hinges and its reliance solely on spring tension to retain the harp both burn too much time making the player fiddle with the rack when he needs smooth harmonica changes to keep the live show going. From a mechanical and construction standpoint this HH01 is fine. The simple lock washers in the hinges retain position well without slowing things down. The overall rack is far less obtrusive than the MZ 2010, but I have disappointments with the HH01 that are a matter of my individual preference and morphology, uncompensated for by any other feature of the rack. The height at which it holds the harmonica is slightly higher than I need. Perhaps more importantly, it angles the harp slightly toward the roof of my mouth rather in a straight line between the upper and lower teeth, which I find essential for control as I bend notes on the draw and over-blow. The MZ 2010 has a convenient feature that allows the player to address both of these issues (height and angle) satisfactorily, but alas, and for no good reason, the MZ 2010 lacks the dual retaining stops under the bottom of the harp that on the HH01 and other racks keeps the harp firmly in the rack against mouth pressure. Considering the price of the MZ 2010, it would have been a simple matter for Hohner to include the bottom stops; having to adjust spring tension for every harp change just to get one out and another securely in is unacceptable. Also the slick rubber-like coating on the parts of the MZ 2010 that touch the covers of the harp make matters worse, failing to grip the harp at reasonable spring tension. I tried dis-assembling the HH01 and reversing the yoke relative to the holder to see if that changed the height to my satisfaction, but that was no good because the angle was still upward and the wing nuts were uncomfortably against my body in that configuration. I am thinking about putting the HH01 in a vise and trying to bend the steel of the arms to correct the angle. This rack is inexpensive enough for such experiments. I am probably going to buy another Hohner 154 to see if the height and angle are better. The 154 seems closest to the cheap little racks I started out on, that probably could have been improved at home with the cheap little lock washers that the HH01 has. I used to use a coat rack on stage hung with several of these cheap racks, each already loaded with a different harp I would need during the set, and that worked pretty well. I have bought the American-made HarpLock that retains the harp with a magnet strip and fits onto a ball mic with the ball screwed on over the loop in this simple device. That to me seems more okay for someone who plays chords, Dylan-style stuff, but not for someone who has to apply force to a harmonica to get everything out of it that I need, playing solo with guitar or on electric bass with bands. I have played in bands (e.g., Selwyn Cooper, Major Handy) solely as a harmonica player, and prefer to play compression-style (cupped hands) through a harp mic and a tube amp, rather than play harp through a vocal mic EQ'd for vocal. There is the problem of a free-standing mic stand not tolerating sufficient forward physical pressure for aggressive hands-free harp-playing. Now I'm playing upright bass and harp together, and question whether a rack is the route I ought to go at all, before I invest in a Rackit! rig for Bulletini mic (those produce great cupped sound through a proper harp mic but the rig is kind of bulky). The best thing I've seen so far for playing harp while playing guitar or bass is the setup used by Hamilton Loomis, who plays hands-free without a contraption around his neck and in front of his face. This can be seen in his YouTube videos. Unfortunately it is not commercially available, so I am on my own to try to replicate it. He was in my city a few years ago (Lake Charles, Louisiana; he'll be back eight days after I'm typing this ). I told him that he had created what I've been looking for my whole life. He said it's a plastic vacuum cleaner suction head he found at his parents' house, that a standard diatonic harmonica fits perfectly inside with enough playing edge protruding. He put a Shaker harmonica mic into the neck of the vacuum head and mounted these together on a heavy mic stand. I think he may have bolted his mic stand onto a plywood board he can actually stand on when he approaches the mic. Until I can get something like that working for me, I'll continue experimenting with racks.

Exactly what I paid for. Keeps Harmonica tightly in place.

It works easy enough and the price is right. I don't know what far more expensive ones provide but it works for me.

I've had this model Hohner Harmonica holder for about four months and haven't reviewed it until now because while it seemed sturdy enough I wasn't sure how well it would stand up to actual use. Back in the day, if you needed a harmonica holder the cheapest and fastest thing to do was to make one our of a wire clothes hanger; naturally, such improvisation seldom yielded anything that would work well for long, or sometimes something that wasn't worth a damn to start with. Truth to tell, I hadn't played harmonica in fifteen years when I decided to start again, and I hadn't played guitar in closer to twenty. I'm still finding it difficult to play both at the same time and it is going to take me at least another four months to feel comfortable with playing both instruments at the same time again. What has become clear is that the harmonica holder is dependable, can take at least a mild beating and above average neglect with no ill effects. It also holds the harmonica in a position that is comfortable to play which is a bonus I hadn't expected, and I don't have to tinker with adjusting it regularly like one I owned thirty-some years ago. I can safely say my harmonica holder is better at what it was built to do than I am, and I'm going to have to work hard to catch up with it. Provided I haven't had a fluke work in my favor for a change, I think this Hohner model should work well for anyone, no matter the level of their skills.

Wie man auf dem Foto sieht, ist meine Mundharmonika zu groß für den Halter, das macht aber gar nichts. Ich kann ihn gut mit der schräg befestigten Harp verwenden. Ich nutze halt Instrumente für Dummies, die sind dann etwas größer. Der Halter ist perfekt, er hält und passt super. Habe viel Spaß damit.

Works great. Almost at 2 years of having this and holds my harmonica nice and strong while playing. Recommended as a great beginner holder. Pretty comfortable.

Easy to use, and very strong. the springs that hold the Harmonica in place are very strong.

Para quienes ya han adoptado el gusto por interpretar la armónica, este soporte es un gran aliado. Para quienes les gusta divertirse tocando la armónica al tiempo que un teclado musical o una guitarra (por ejemplo), para quienes necesitan practicar y tener la Armónica siempre lista, para lucirse, etc.Es razonablemente cómodo, muy resistente y estable. Compatible con prácticamente cualquier armónica de Blues. Compra obligada para entusiastas.+Cómodo, estable, resistente+Universal (Armónica de Blues)+Sin vibraciones molestas+Excelente relación calidad/precio-Se requiere algo de esfuerzo para colocar el instrumento.

E' la prima volta che ho provato a suonare l'armonica mentre tengo la chitarra, è molto divertente e questo apparecchio Hohner funziona bene. Ciò detto, la gomma sull'anello base ha un odore tremendo che non accenna a diminuire con il tempo. Fa quasi venire il mal di testa. Sarò costretto a sfilarla via e sostituirla con qualcos'altro, quindi 5 stelle non le merita.