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How do pot call makers tune their calls?

I've never known one who didn't research and develop with completed calls. That to say, no shortcuts. Every alteration ended with a glued up finished call. Once the specs were dialed that's the specs they ran. Match a striker to the call after, but as far as tuning the actual call it was all that tinkering to get the specs right in the first place. Not like a box, say, where you could make slight adjustments to the screw, rails, paddle and tweak a call to sound right. The ones that weren't right simply got tossed. The really, really good callmakers have seemed to toss a whole, whole lot.


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Big  can of worms

Tuning is with in you don't know until you glue it up
And there again. Not wood even the one board you are using is the same hardness. 

Like what Chester said.  Once it's glued up, the only option really is your striker.  And even then, it may not bring it to where your wanting it.  Sad thing, every material is different.  And if your commissioned to make a pot out of something you've never used before, it's a crap shoot.  Especially if your forking out $25 bucks for the blank alone.  I made a call for a guy on here out of Green Osage.  I failed, and didn't get the sound he wanted.  Needless to say, he didn't want the call, and I don't blame him.  But I didn't want to loose out on the $25 it cost me for the material, so I took it apart and turned out the pedestal and made a whole new one with different dimensions.  Glued it all back up, and wouldn't ya know, it was a killer sounding call after that.  So I learned alot from that failed build.  But that's how it's done.  You fail at something, but that in itself isn't a failure, it's a learning experience.   I guess I should have taken the time to take the call apart in the beginning.   But there's always that fear of destroying the pot in the process.   

Interesting. I wasn't for sure if they could make tweaks with the sound board or not. So, it's basically just trial and error until they figure out what works. But even if it works with one combination, it may not with the next due to materials possibly being different.

Quote from: roosterstraw on January 30, 2022, 10:17:20 AM
Interesting. I wasn't for sure if they could make tweaks with the sound board or not. So, it's basically just trial and error until they figure out what works. But even if it works with one combination, it may not with the next due to materials possibly being different.

Tweaks with the soundboard in so much as soundboard material, pedestal height, etc. but once it's glued up it's glued up. At that point either it worked or it didn't. Can get the calling surface out and start again, like [mention]mastevt [/mention]said, but I'd imagine that's a real headache. I will say Jack Mincey told me once that he used a certain type glue that would break down in the microwave and that made it really easy for him to pop surfaces out of he wanted to start again. He just shoved a pencil through the holes in the back and out it came. The downside of that was the surfaces also broke loose if the call was left in really high heat, say a pickup truck in the South at the  end of turkey season


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Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on January 30, 2022, 10:24:13 AM

Quote from: roosterstraw on January 30, 2022, 10:17:20 AM
Interesting. I wasn't for sure if they could make tweaks with the sound board or not. So, it's basically just trial and error until they figure out what works. But even if it works with one combination, it may not with the next due to materials possibly being different.

Tweaks with the soundboard in so much as soundboard material, pedestal height, etc. but once it's glued up it's glued up. At that point either it worked or it didn't. Can get the calling surface out and start again, like [mention]mastevt [/mention]said, but I'd imagine that's a real headache. I will say Jack Mincey told me once that he used a certain type glue that would break down in the microwave and that made it really easy for him to pop surfaces out of he wanted to start again. He just shoved a pencil through the holes in the back and out it came. The downside of that was the surfaces also broke loose if the call was left in really high heat, say a pickup truck in the South at the  end of turkey season


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If you use e6000 you can take a heat gun and heat up the playing surface and it will come out. I did this several time when I first started out.

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Quote from: Swamp on February 02, 2022, 11:32:19 AM

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on January 30, 2022, 10:24:13 AM

Quote from: roosterstraw on January 30, 2022, 10:17:20 AM
Interesting. I wasn't for sure if they could make tweaks with the sound board or not. So, it's basically just trial and error until they figure out what works. But even if it works with one combination, it may not with the next due to materials possibly being different.

Tweaks with the soundboard in so much as soundboard material, pedestal height, etc. but once it's glued up it's glued up. At that point either it worked or it didn't. Can get the calling surface out and start again, like [mention]mastevt [/mention]said, but I'd imagine that's a real headache. I will say Jack Mincey told me once that he used a certain type glue that would break down in the microwave and that made it really easy for him to pop surfaces out of he wanted to start again. He just shoved a pencil through the holes in the back and out it came. The downside of that was the surfaces also broke loose if the call was left in really high heat, say a pickup truck in the South at the  end of turkey season


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If you use e6000 you can take a heat gun and heat up the playing surface and it will come out. I did this several time when I first started out.

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I use a Mason jar ring too.  Helps divert the heat up and away from the edge of your call so it doesn't get damaged from the heat.

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I'm interested in trying to make some pot calls and was wondering something along the same vane. When you guys have made the trial and error calls did you only keep the ones that played good to your ear, or did you have other people run them, to get a feel for what other people like. Also did you take multiple iterations of the same call with small variations and let the turkeys decide which one they liked better?

Here's how I tune my calls that didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to

(https://i.ibb.co/M905xhr/Trash-Calls.png)

Quote from: twyatt on February 02, 2022, 07:53:50 PM
Here's how I tune my calls that didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to

(https://i.ibb.co/M905xhr/Trash-Calls.png)

Seeing this makes me sick to my stomach.

Quote from: twyatt on February 02, 2022, 07:53:50 PM
Here's how I tune my calls that didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to

(https://i.ibb.co/M905xhr/Trash-Calls.png)

You were the one I wanted to tag in this most The good thing about that kind of perfectionism, when you buy from them 10 times out of 10 you get a call that'll flat run.


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That's the second trash can pile of calls I've purged in the past few days   
I throw away WAY more than I keep.  All of those calls in the trash can would kill turkeys, and I'm sure could REALLY be brought to life with the right striker, but I ain't got time for all of that.  If they don't come out sounding great to me with a junk striker, and run easy, they go in the trash.  I don't have time for trying to take them apart either, I'm usually too mad at them for not working, and we part ways, lol.   If I didn't have close neighbors, they would become skeet.

You can't tune a call once it's finished though if that was the OP's question.   And yes, I'm aware my wife needs to clean the underside of the trash can lid  :TooFunny:

I feel privileged to have saved two calls from the circular file that Travis made. Both are phenomenal calls just as he described, easy to play and sound great

Thank you for the kind words

Quote from: twyatt on February 02, 2022, 08:34:37 PM
That's the second trash can pile of calls I've purged in the past few days   
I throw away WAY more than I keep.  All of those calls in the trash can would kill turkeys, and I'm sure could REALLY be brought to life with the right striker, but I ain't got time for all of that.  If they don't come out sounding great to me with a junk striker, and run easy, they go in the trash.  I don't have time for trying to take them apart either, I'm usually too mad at them for not working, and we part ways, lol.   If I didn't have close neighbors, they would become skeet.

You can't tune a call once it's finished though if that was the OP's question.   And yes, I'm aware my wife needs to clean the underside of the trash can lid  :TooFunny:

I'd about guarantee every call you're culling sounds better than 99% of calls getting sold on Facebook and Fleabay. Ought to start you a secondary secret business and sell all them trashcan calls(Trashcan Calls) then keep the absolute fireballs to sell as Travis Wyatt calls


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