[Lowboy]

A Hohner Professional 36 in extremely good condition sold for the asking price of $250 plus shipping on Ebay about one week ago. Lowboy

[Melodica-Me]

Wow, how long was it up for? I have only seen one before and it was a mess.

[Lowboy]

I would say it was posted for about 4 to 6 days before someone bought it. Lowboy

[Melodica-Me]

I was finally able to down load the file to Soundcloud. I only had a couple of minutes to do this so I am not very happy with the outcome. The position of the microphone was not correct so the variance between both is minimal to me. Recorded in an open room with a Neumann TLM 49 Condenser Microphone approx. two feet away.

Melodica-Me

[Alan Brinton]

Thanks for the demo, Melodica-Me. I notice more tremolo with the Professional. That’s not related to any difference between the instruments, is it?

[Melodica-Me]

Good question Alan, actually the vibrato came very easily at the tail end of a phase, almost effortlessly when the amount of air was reduced slightly. The reeds have a similar response as the Vibrandoneon in that aspect. So I just left it in. I have some Melodica’s that sound very choppy, kind of a dadadada sound instead of a wawawa which is proffered. Some melodicas you really have to work them to create a natural sounding vibrato, some just do it naturally.
Melodica-Me

[Lowboy]

Thanks Melodica-Me for the recording. I think these melodicas sound very nice. I now wish I had purchased that Professional 36 on Ebay. It looked like it was in great shape. Lowboy

[Alan Brinton]

Melodica-Me makes them sound very good. But sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it’s the instrument or the player.

[Alan Brinton]

I noticed that the Professional 36 appears to be currently selling for $329 here, where there are other discontinued Hohners also listed:

http://search.store.yahoo.net/guitarsearcher/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=guitarsearcher&query=melodica&.autodone=http%3A%2F%2Fguitarsearcher.us-dc1-edit.store.yahoo.net%2FRT%2FNEWEDIT.guitarsearcher%2F70ebd95f246a%2Fnsearch.html

[Lowboy]

Hi Alan,

I don’t think that is a professional 36. The picture looks like it is a Piano 36, which is a professional grade melodica but not a “Professional 36.” It is hard to tell, but it looks like a Piano 36 to me. Plus the verbiage is awfully vague covering both models: “Hohner HM-36 Professional 36 Melodica HM-36.” I think they are using the term “Professional” in a generic sense. Buyer beware. There is an email address there for asking questions. It looks like they are out of Rhodes Island. I might be willing to pay that much for a brand NEW Professional 36, but a used one is a crap shoot. That price seems high for a Piano 36, but then again, there are very few new ones around. Lowboy

[Melodica-Me]

Definitely a Piano 36 and not a Professional 36. You can tell by the end caps they would be much wider. The cost may be high but like Lowboy says for a new Piano 36 it may be worth it. I would call and have them confirm or send a picture of the melodica where it says ‘Professional 36″

[Alan Brinton]

I wasn’t thinking of buying it, just thought somebody else might be interested. There was also a model on eBay identified as “Proffesional” that I could see was clearly a Piano 36 so sent a note to the seller. But I was just checking for bargains.

[Alan Brinton]

Okay, so somebody just outbid me on eBay and got a “good condition” Hohner Piano 36 for $64.57

[Lowboy]

Not me Alan, although that could be a good deal. On the other hand, I have found that buying older Hohners on Ebay to be a crap shoot.

I have purchased several very old Hohners for reasonable money that played and looked near perfection. I have also paid pretty good money on Ebay for Hohners that looked great but had problems. The biggest problems are excessive leakage and wicked attic smell that leaves a bad taste and feeling in your throat even after a thorough cleaning of the instrument.

Here are the questions to ask a seller before buying. “If you blow relatively hard into the melodica without pressing notes, does any air leak out?” “Where was the melodica stored?” “Does it have a strong attic smell?” People who buy these melodicas at tag sales and then resell on Ebay have no idea what makes a good performing melodica. All they will say is “all the notes works.”

So Alan, you may have missed a great deal, or you may have saved yourself 65 bucks. It is hard to tell.

Lowboy

[Lowboy]

And I have decided not to buy from eBay unless the seller offers the 14 day return option. I might take a chance on a 30 dollar melodica, but no way would I spend 75 to 200 dollars on a vintage melodica without the option to return it if it proves substandard.

Lowboy

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