Hohner Silver Star C

The Richter harmonica is probably the most widespread type of harmonica. If you mean playing seriously and thinking about setting up a blues, bluegrass, country, folk, rock or pop band, you should start with the major Richter harmonica. Learning to play on it is quite simple, and the possibilities of using it are huge. Play a parade, even a solo.

The basic difference between HOBBY and Richter harmonics is that HOBBYs have full scales within the tuning and Richters have some tone within the scale (Richter tuning). It's a big advantage, but a beginner will soon find that some scale tones can't be played. But it can be dealt with using a special technique called cross-harp.

Richters are also produced in different scales, so it is quite common that seasoned bluesmans are armed with harmonica strips at the concerts like Russian frontline soldiers.