When Neil Cost first started making his boatpaddle long boxes, he often complained in his conversations with me about the troubles he had tuning them. He often said he would have a long box tuned one day, then the next day it would sound awful. Then he would work on tuning it some more, then set it aside. With some callers, this could go on for weeks...or months. Finally, Neil told me the secret for tuning a long box was knowing when to stop messing with it. Later, when I asked Neil a question about it, he told me that getting a long box finally tuned to his satisfaction was one of the most difficult frustrations for him building a long box.
I couldn't agree with this more! Folks would be floored by how many LB's I toss in the fireplace...it's easily 4 out of the next 10 I build. I experience the very same frustrations with tuning ad frankly those that seem to work best are those who run well early on with less tuning. There is a clear issue with the friction of the lid to the body...what I mean is I can run 20 lids while tuning where 10 totally sound awful, 5 sound "okay" 3 sound decent and maybe 2 sound good to great. There have been many times where a lid that sounds great on one call will sound great on most calls, seems the same goes for short boxes. And without a doubt, the longer I let a call sit, the more stable it becomes from tuning and the closer it get to being done. Neil is spot on... and I have had this discussion with other box call builders, SB's are more forgiving that LB's when it comes to tuning. When a LB is gone...IT'S GONE!
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