A week or so ago I started a thread asking for suggestions about a mellow sounding slate. Something with a more old school sound. The slates over glass are great calls but they are higher pitched than I was looking for and looking for something to do feeding calls and tree talk with. I am still planning on getting a couple of the slates suggested but I had this one come in the mail last week from NCbowjunkie, Daryal Gosey. The call is a slate over bamboo soundboard, and I believe the pot is bamboo. Along with the call came a two piece Ash striker with bocote top and a one piece bamboo with a piece of cocobolo at the top. I gave the call the run through with various strikers and I am very happy with the results. The call sounds great, conditions well without needing to be continually conditioned, is lightweight, and it has great pitch.
I really liked the ash striker, but when playing the bamboo I though it sounded horrible. When I run a call I am outside in the woods with my phone recording about 20 yards away. When I played the bamboo soundfile back I liked it much better and the more I listened to it the more I like it. It has a nasally sound with some rasp, a different sound than the other strikers I normally use. I tried the two strikers that came with the call and also a Fowler Mysterywood, Fowler Black Locust, Halloran Wenge, and Fowler Alaskan Yellow Cedar. I am very happy with the call and wanted to share it with the board in case someone is looking for something similar. Thanks!
Here is a playlist of the slate being used with various strikers:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcYRqOuFdTHp-iI9kjiCS1QsIQhlyi9dN
