The Hohner Marine Band is a basic diatonic harmonica that is in the key of C. I don't believe that they make this in other keys, but I could be mistaken about this. It's a pretty thin harmonica compared to the other ones that I have and I have used, but it definitely doesn't have a thin sound. Although I don't claim to be a professional harmonica player, I have played it a bit here and there and this is definitely one of the best harmonicas that I've played before. It feels good to play and is easy to shift from note to note. It has a pretty full sound to me, but certainly sounds similar to many harmonicas out there. It's definitely great for playing blues more than anything else, as it just seems to have that sort of sound. It comes with the little case shown in the picture above, so you can keep in clean and even carry it with you if you want! I'm not really sure why they call this the 'Marine Band' harmonica, to be honest. While it isn't the cheapest harmonica out there, it's still a great place to start if you're serious about playing the harmonica since it's so easy to play. Of course you'll probably want to branch out with harmonicas in other keys, but if you just want to get your feet wet or if you want to get a really nice harmonica in the key of C, this is probably the way to go. You can certainly find harmonicas cheaper, many of them from Hohner, but you won't find too many this nice for this price. I wouldn't say that it's expensive, but most harmonicas will be cheaper for sure. For this reason it's probably best suited for the player who wants to take their sound to the next level, but is equally adequate for beginners and harmonics players on all levels.