I have tried most of the harmonicas that are on the market. I will try to leave an honest review. For me this harmoncia is the perfect compromise between price and quality. I feel like it is natural to compare this one with more expensive harmonicas like the Hohner Crossover, Suzuki Manji and Seydel 1847. These are all good harmonicas. Crossover and 1847 might overblow out of the box, but not consistently. They do however cost significantly more. Comparing it to cheaper harmonicas like the SP20, Kongsheng Mars, Easttop, Seydel Session Steel it is for me a clear difference in quality and feel. The response and tuning of the Hohner Rocket Amp is superior to all these.
The biggest contestant is the Kongsheng Solist in my opinion. This is a harmonica that cost about the same and in some cases offers much better production quality then The Rocket. However, my experience is that their quality control is not consistent and there is a big difference from on item to the next. You can buy one harmonica that overblows very good out of the box, and the next don't. I feel like that is the edge the Solist has on the Rocket. When you take that away they are very similiar. The solist is slightly more responsive, while the Rocket is considerably better tuned. It will sound better when playing chords and when playing blues in second position because of the way Hohner Tunes their harmonicas. I also feel like the reeds from Hohner, independent on models has a unique sound that no other harmonica is able to reproduce.
The reason I don't give this harmonica 5 stars is because it still has potential. It could be set up to overblow out of the box and there is room for improvement in response. These are details that would rise the price considerably if were implemented, and I don't really want another expensive harmonica. This is your work horse that you can afford to replace with out feeling like you are giving up on quality.
