Altering Calls For Personal Needs

[Greg Massey]

After you receive a custom call from a builder, do you or have you alter one or several to try and achieve the sound your looking for in sanding, filing, grinding or cutting on the call?  Does it bother you to take a 50 dollar call or one that costs more than 50 dollars and then start defacing the call to suit your needs?  In doing so have you ruined a good CALL or pretty much defaced the value of the calls with your alterations?   I know back in the early years of production calls, we were always looking for ways to make improvements to these cheaper calls by trying to alter them to sound more like a turkey...  But i'm talking about custom calls not the production ones, but hey i guess you could still alter a production call.    It's all about the sounds, tones and pitch of a call to our ear. 

[callmakerman]

I've only retuned two long boxes. Both were from well-known makers from back in the day and were IMO a little weak on one side. A little time with sandpaper and my tuning knife and they came to life.

[packmule]

I have, yes, if I know I'm going to keep and hunt the call. If it's a call that I think I'll eventually trade or sell, no. I wouldn't want to try to sell/trade a call from a well known maker if it's in different condition than what I received.

[Yoder409]

Was just talking about this very same thing last night with a very well-known callmaker.

When I but a "production" type box call, about the first thing I do is grab a screwdriver and start giving it 1/4 turns.  I can almost ALWAYS improve the call beyond where I received it.

But, I have never put a screwdriver on a custom call.  My personal feeling is that I got the artist's interpretation.  And that's what I wanted.

YMMV

[Meleagris gallopavo]

After you receive a custom call from a builder, do you or have you alter one or several to try and achieve the sound your looking for in sanding, filing, grinding or cutting on the call?  Does it bother you to take a 50 dollar call or one that costs more than 50 dollars and then start defacing the call to suit your needs?  In doing so have you ruined a good CALL or pretty much defaced the value of the calls with your alterations?   I know back in the early years of production calls, we were always looking for ways to make improvements to these cheaper calls by trying to alter them to sound more like a turkey...  But i'm talking about custom calls not the production ones, but hey i guess you could still alter a production call.    It's all about the sounds, tones and pitch of a call to our ear.

I've thought about this a lot myself.  If I like 90% of what the call brings to the table but the 10% I'm not happy with nags at me all the time, I'm tempted to change it.  It could be something functional or aesthetic.  What would keep me from tweaking a lot would be me not knowing what I'm doing and messing up a great call.


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[callmakerman]

I have, yes, if I know I'm going to keep and hunt the call. If it's a call that I think I'll eventually trade or sell, no. I wouldn't want to try to sell/trade a call from a well known maker if it's in different condition than what I received.

The two calls I retuned were not going to be traded or sold so for me there was no worries in what I did.

[packmule]

I have, yes, if I know I'm going to keep and hunt the call. If it's a call that I think I'll eventually trade or sell, no. I wouldn't want to try to sell/trade a call from a well known maker if it's in different condition than what I received.

The two calls I retuned were not going to be traded or sold so for me there was no worries in what I did.

Yes, understood. I was replying to the original post not yours.

[Chris O]

I got a long box from a big name guy that squeaked terrible close to the end of the stroke. I sent it to another call maker and they fixed it. Some of those guys take a long time to receive anything from them and I didn't want to take the chance of having to wait forever to get a call back. I did get this call second hand ,but it was from a big name and I don't think anything had been messed with from the previous owner . I just don't know how these kind of calls slip through their quality control. One side of the call was better than the other side. It sounds good now and a big thanks to the guy that fixed it.

[richard black]

I only use trumpets and scratch boxes anymore. I will not try to alter a trumpet under any circumstances other than the lip stop positioning or a new lip stop altogether. I will alter a scratch box tho, either by sanding or filing or some other alteration. I want to achieve the sound I'm looking for, but within reason of course.