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Author
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Topic: how do you "tune" a hand call?
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 28, 2003 02:20 PM
what is the procedure you use, and what are you looking for, raspiness, pitch, volume?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted June 28, 2003 03:23 PM
What do you want? ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
That's how I start... first I gotta know what the guy getting the call wants.
Some guys want a call that's gravelly and coarse, other times they want a high pitched rodent distress, yet others want a good deer grunt/fawn bleat... or even like Rich Cronk recently made a bear bawl.
Then I go through the many variables that make the calls sound, picking the ones I want.
Soundboard curavture, and concavity; Reed thicknesses and shapes (especially tip shape), and type of reed materials; Single or doubled reeds:
And this is just in open reed calls, for closed reeds you have some 25+ reeds to choose from, and they can be "bladed", wrinkled, pinched, press fit, and a few other tuning tricks I don't know.
Then we get into the shape of the bell tube... a long tube can muffle volume, a megaphone can enhance volume, and the size of the opening of the air channel can effect how hard you have to blow and how much volume that delivers as well.
This can also have an effect on how easily a call locks up or not (open and closed reeds)... my RG Customs call will not lock up, no matter how hard I lean on it... my Circe 3n1 was terminally/intermittently locked up before we made it home from Wal*Mart... RG is gonna fix that for me too!
Way more than half of the time I spend making an open reed call is in the soundboard/bridge, air channel, and the making and reshaping of the reeds to get a sound I like. Some calls go through several "generations" of reeds, before I call it good (pun intended).
I hope this helps demystify the claim of hand tuned calls, and why in the case of a Cronk Call, an RG Customs, a Higgins or a Rhino this is a very good thing... these guys know what coyote likes to hear.
I believe in my RG Customs, I KNOW it has the right sound... that alone makes it more worthy than any other call in my bag.
Jeff 
[ June 28, 2003, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: Krustyklimber ]
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted June 28, 2003 06:13 PM
LB,
When I set out to design my own call, I identified very simple criteria. I wanted a call that runs the range of the voice's capabilities, both in pitch and in volume. I wanted a call that could be blown softly as well as loudly and produce comparable types of sounds at each extreme and everywhere in between. I also wanted a call that could go from the voice's low end, regarding pitch, to the high-end without locking up. I'm able to achieve that end using pretty much what Jay outlined in his recent T&PC article. I've got a lot of calls that work within a narrow range, but that cannot run the gammet of sounds. I think that this capability is what makes open reed calls so attractive. You can compensate for loss of volume or variations in pitch by altering the position of your teeth/lips on the reed and soundboard - something you cannot do with an enclosed reed call. How I achieved what I was after flies in the face of what most consider to be conventional custom call making philosophy. But, being a non-conformist, I chose to look at the flow dynamics of air going through the call based upon two decades of firefighting and cardiac anatomy and physiology experience. The rest was just intuitive. I can't say that my calls work better than anyone else's, but I get the sound I like from them when I haven't been able to do so with other calls.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 28, 2003 07:03 PM
Yeah, I know what you mean, Lance.
I can only get the natural sound I prefer, by starting out with fresh rabbit lips. By mid afternoon, they are well seasoned, (really stink), but the sound is so good, I put up with it.
Anybody can call coyotes with sterile plastic. It's rotten rabbit lips that separate the men from the boys. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Hey, Rich. Did I ever tell you about my pink frog?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted June 28, 2003 07:21 PM
Yes you did, but since it didn't have a battery and a button to push, I thought you were pulling my leg.Just kidding, I'd like to hear about it again. Also what became of it?
IP: Logged
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 28, 2003 08:46 PM
It's like my American Express card......
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted June 29, 2003 07:46 AM
A rabbit lips mouthcall? I gotta see that, Leonard. I may offer it along with the Blow It Out Your A$$ (BIOYA) Coyote Rectum Howler that Rich and I designed. I could call it my Southern California Calling Kit since no one up here would want it. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 29, 2003 09:11 AM
Yeah, that Rich is full of it.....I mean full of great ideas!
Rectum calls have always been a big favorite of mine. String a dozen dried rectums together in a spiffy neckless; would make quite a fashion statement at Texas gun shows. Great gifts, too!
But, forget it. I'm not giving away any more secrets about my rabbit lips call. However, it (is) a well known fact that entire packs of coyotes have been known to blind side me, the acoustics are that good.
Good hunting. LB
PS that pink frog is no joke, fellas.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Richard Grantham
Knows what it's all about
Member # 107
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posted June 29, 2003 03:24 PM
I can no longer keep up with rabbit lips, and dried rectums, I'm quitting call making, see post on PM.
Very serious just too tired to keep up.
Richard Grantham
ps I can make a very good rabbit sound with vocal cords but not much volume, I used to raise rabbits and if you hit them half hard you hear a lot of rabbits crys----- doesn't sound too much like most of of calls ??????????
Posts: 44 | From: Schertz, Tx | Registered: Feb 2003
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