Happy Birthday Marine Band

The Marine Band has been the most popular and most sold harmonica for generations, and this year it turns 120 years old.

It is the original blues harmonica and can be heard on virtually every recording by blues legends such as Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson I & II, Big Walter Horton, Sonny Terry, Jimmy Reed and Big Mama Thornton.

The blues would not be what it is today without the Marine Band harmonica, but it was not exclusively a blues instrument. This model was also the first choice of artists such as Johnny Cash, John Lennon and Bob Dylan.

Today it is still manufactured in Trossingen, Germany in much the same way as when it was first introduced in 1896. Its uniquely authentic sound has defined the role of the harmonica in the blues tradition and made it the benchmark by which all others are judged.