In 1973, Hohner introduced a diatonic harmonica called the Golden Melody. It remained mostly unchanged for the next fifty years and acquired a loyal following, including notable players such as overblow pioneer Howard Levy. However, in 2023 Hohner revamped it as the Golden Melody Progressive, taking its place alongside the other harmonicas in the Progressive Series: the Special 20, Rocket, Rocket Amp and Rocket Low. Reactions to this have been mixed, with many die hard fans of the original Golden Melody being understandably upset at their favorite instrument being discontinued in favor of this new model. With this review, I will try to bring some objectivity to the issue, hopefully helped by the fact that the Golden Melody was never my favorite Hohner diatonic, as I always preferred the Special 20 and related models. However, I have worked on plenty of them over the years, so I am quite familiar with its strengths and weaknesses.
The first change is obvious before you even see the harmonica. The GM Progressive comes in a very nice retro-styled case with a linen finish. The previous version used to come in a hard plastic case with an annoying tendency to part company with its liner. Upon taking the harp from the case, I was immediately struck by how smoothly contoured it is, with absolutely no harsh edges or corners. This is due in part to the edges of the covers being tucked neatly into the comb, rather than simply resting against it. The covers of the previous version were secured by vertical interscrews, but on the new one, they are fastened in place with a single horizontal screw at each end of the harp, with the screw heads being neatly recessed into the comb. For reference, these screws require a Torx T7 bit. The covers, like the other Progressive Series harps, are highly polished stainless steel. This harmonica looks good and feels extremely comfortable to both hands and mouth.
The new version is fractionally longer than the original, but I doubt that most players will even notice. More noticeable, however, is that the covers of the new version are deeper and have less of a taper towards the front:
If you are sensitive to such things, this could be a significant change - possibly for the better, or for the worse, depending on personal preference. The openings at the rear of the covers are also rather different:
The comb is another area where the old and new models differ substantially.
The old GM used a solid comb made from the same plastic that was used on the older versions of the Chrometta series and other Hohner designs from the 1950s. I never liked that material, as it had a tendency to crack and flake, often where the edges of the covers rested against it. Hohner introduced ABS combs for the Chrometta series some time ago and now they have done the same with the Golden Melody. The front of the comb feels noticeably smoother to the tongue and I much prefer the bright red over the rather dull maroon colour of the old combs. The new combs lack the sprues in the reed chambers, which doesn't make much difference acoustically, but it does make it easier to adjust or retune reeds without completely disassembling the instrument. Another difference is that the old combs had built-in posts to add support to where the covers were attached. The new cover design makes these redundant, which leads to a difference in the reedplates - the old reedplates had holes to fit these posts, the new ones do not.
This means that it is possible to fit old GM reedplates to the new comb design (a couple of screw holes are in different places, but these were unused anyway on the sample I have), but new GM reedplates will not fit the older combs without modification. Aside from this, the reedplates are basically the same. The reed/slot tolerances on the sample I have appear to be very good, although the gapping is a little wider than I have seen on other recent Hohner harmonicas. The tuning is extremely good - Equal Temperament, of course, but at 444Hz, which is a little higher than the last GMs that I have checked. The tuning work was done with diagonal scratches across the reeds, but with a very light touch and it looks like most of the reeds needed very little fine tuning at all. The combination of wider gaps and slightly higher tuning would make this harp more suited for harder players right out of the box, which raises a possibly related point. I have seen quite a few online comments about how the new design is leaky, but this does not seem to be the case with the one I have for review. I've done some typical tests for airtightness and the new design seems at least as good in that regard as the original one. If the sample I have is representative of how they are typically adjusted at the factory, I suspect that people are noticing the wider gapping of the reeds, rather than actual leakage between reedplates and comb. After a few minutes spent doing some basic reed adjustment, this harp became extremely responsive and easy to overblow cleanly. That said, this is all based on a sample of one, so take it for what it is worth.
I have also seen a lot of comments about how the tone of the new version is different, some preferring it to the older one, others not so much. Personally, I'm not hearing a great deal of difference, but judge for yourself:
They perhaps don't sound absolutely identical, but if I didn't know in what order I recorded them, I doubt I'd be able to tell which was which.
So, is this my new favorite harp? No. I still don't care for the shape, the exposed reedplates, or the equal tempered tuning. However in the (hopefully) unlikely event that someone were to hold a gun to my head and tell me I had to play either the old version or the new one, I would definitely pick the new one. If you loved the basic shape of the Golden Melody, the tempered tuning and the classic Hohner reeds, I think you should be quite happy with the new version, which has all of these features. If you loved the slim profile the old version presented to your mouth, the new version might be a bit too much of a mouthful. If you liked the original version except for that comb material, you should love this one. If you never played the Golden Melody before, then I think it is worth checking out the new one to see if it works for you, especially if you are primarily a single note player. If you do a lot of chordal playing, the tempered tuning might be an issue, unless you are comfortable doing a bit of retuning. If you are looking for a harp that overblows perfectly right out of the box, then this probably isn't it, although really, all harps require some degree of reed adjustment in order to overblow optimally.
Unfortunately, if there was nothing about the original Golden Melody you didn't love, I don't know what to tell you, besides Hohner didn't change the design just for the sake of it. As far as I can gather, they were no longer able to produce the GM as it was and had to make a choice between changing the design, or discontinuing the GM altogether. I think they definitely made the right choice and I think that once players get past the initial shock, they new Golden Melody will prove as popular as the old one.
The RRP is US$59.99 and it is available in all twelve major keys, from G to F#.
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