I am on a list to have a longbox made. I am leaning toward bloodwood over mineral poplar based on recommendations from some here. I am supposed to call him this summer and I'm guessing we'll discuss wood types. I know butternut is popular in longboxes, just wanting to hear other people's favorites especially since I'm just a mouth call user with no experience using a longbox. Thanks.
What I do... I talk to the call maker making the call, tell him a bit about myself and the birds I hunt, and the sound I am looking for, and tell him to use his best judgement in making my call...
One of the best things about purchasing a "custom" call, is being able to talk to the person making your call and getting their input.
Yeah, I usually let the callmaker decide the combo. They know what combos they build the best and which wood they have in supply that has been making good calls lately. To me that's the biggest factor, the quality of wood they have available at the time. Good luck!
I think, but in your case maybe not, the customer typically has a preference on sound, I say this because you don't own a LB, nevertheless which is to say that in a long box certain woods, Butternut is one of the very best, tend to produce fantastic Kee-kee's. This is also influenced by the lid/paddle material.
Quote from: Marc on April 05, 2017, 11:31:05 PM
What I do... I talk to the call maker making the call, tell him a bit about myself and the birds I hunt, and the sound I am looking for, and tell him to use his best judgement in making my call...
One of the best things about purchasing a "custom" call, is being able to talk to the person making your call and getting their input.
Marc is really spot on....if you can give the callmaker some idea of what you hear, what you like, be as descriptive as you can....all this leads to his ability to match what you want and ultimately achieve your complete satisfaction.
Quote from: Marc on April 05, 2017, 11:31:05 PM
What I do... I talk to the call maker making the call, tell him a bit about myself and the birds I hunt, and the sound I am looking for, and tell him to use his best judgement in making my call...
One of the best things about purchasing a "custom" call, is being able to talk to the person making your call and getting their input.
Agreed this is good advice. Bloodwood/mineral poplar is a great combo in a lot of makers hands.
Kwila is quickly becoming one of my favorite woods. Have both a long box and short box with Kwila paddle both sound great. I talked to the maker in both cases, telling them what I was looking for, and both suggested Kwila. All depends on what you're looking for. I agree talk to the maker.
Quote from: Marc on April 05, 2017, 11:31:05 PM
What I do... I talk to the call maker making the call, tell him a bit about myself and the birds I hunt, and the sound I am looking for, and tell him to use his best judgement in making my call...
One of the best things about purchasing a "custom" call, is being able to talk to the person making your call and getting their input.
I second Marc's advice
I always talk to the maker what he has and what woods are making especially good calls for him sometimes some wood batches are better than others.
I sometimes have a rough idea of what I want in sound or even colors and will bring that up but they still might steer me in a direction. Maybe I want a red paddle but that could be paduak, bloodwood, redheart
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I personally would say Blood wood or leopard wood over butter nut, purple heart over black limba, and I have another that I don't even let people know I make I just surprise them with it, that's how good it is. LOL. As a maker those are my favorites though.
I'm by no means an expert with a longbox, as I primarily use a shortbox. I'm definitely better now with a longbox than I used to be - maybe because I now have a handful to choose from. My two favorites are a cedar/butternut from Lamar Williams and Mahogany/butternut from Mike Lapp. Both are killers, for sure. So, I guess a butternut for the base is my preference, for what it's worth . . .
IMHO, calls in the same wood combo from different makers can sound very different, so I concur with everyone else that said speak with the maker and follow his advice.