Playing a Vibrating Tongue Call

[pappy]

Since I have started making these lil' fellas, I have done a lot of experimenting with the direction of the wood striking surface and with the way to play these. I have found that you really need to place the direction of the grain running from top to bottom, and even at that, you would need to find the straightest grain you can. Here is another neat thing I notice, if your grain has a left to right pattern, it helps to start your run on the call by placing the striker into the run opposite the run. Left to right, means you start on the right side, right to left means you start on the left side. You retain good bite, and also able to locate the sweet spot better this way. This may not sound like a lot, but I believe some folks are having problems finding the spot...hopefully this will help.
Another key is the striker tip, sanding it narrower will get you higher pitch, but it will also shorten your striking area and reduce the sweet spot size. Unbelievably so, there is a lefty or a righty in these boxes. Experimenting will get you top results. pappy

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Pappy is dead on with his comments. I'd like to add another with them, the growth direction of the wood is also very inportant with these calls. That's where your cotton balls come into play. Run a cotton ball up n down the tongues to see which direction the woods growth is running. Some you may play with the tongue facing down and some my play better with the tongue facing up? The crown on the striker peg is very important, as to how easy the call will play. You want a nice even rounded tip on your stikers, a sharper pointed or flat tipped striker makes them hard to run.