Slate call question

[MS]

After a lot of shop time, trial and error and calls in the kindling bin, I have my crystal and glass calls sounding like a hen.  My slate calls need work.  Not asking for specific dimensions but generally do you increase or decrease pedestal outside diameter for slate?  Also do you have your glass sound board the same distatance from bottom of slate as you do for glass and crystal?  Any help appreciated.

[MattinIdaho]

Following along here. The entire magic and tricks of making a good call is very interesting.

[Gobbler2577]

Probably will be easier to advise if you say what is going on.  Are they high and screechy or hollow sounding?  Generally speaking, my pedestal dimensions remain the same as my glass calls.  Now the problem with slate is the variation in slate thickness.  With a pot call, I like every thing to be as consistent as possible.  Slate thickness is critical and for me the thinner the better to a point.  You can make a good slate call today and do everything the same tomorrow and have a bad result because of a thick piece of slate.  This is easily remedied with a bit of time and a good sander.  I want all mine to be within .007 of each other. 

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[lightsoutcalls]

A good rule of thumb for distance between soundboard top and surface bottom is 2x the thickness of your soundboard.  A quick gauge to check this is to take 2 pieces of your chosen soundboard material (I use single strength glass as soundboards on most calls) and glue them together face to face with a few drops of super glue.  As you turn your call, you can press your "gauge" against your pedestal (with lathe stopped, of course) and slide it against the edge of your pot.  The top of your "gauge" should be even (or very close one way or the other) with the ledge that your surface material sits on.
The distance between my pedestal wall to the inside of my pot wall varies very little for any call with the same diameter surface.  I gauge this distance by the width of the gouge I use to remove the stock, not by measuring with any calibrated device (micrometer, tape measure, etc.).

[WillowRidgeCalls]

The diameter of your pedestal determines the amount of rasp you want in a call. The smaller the diameter pedestal the more rasp you'll get, the bigger the diameter the cleaner it'll sound. The distance between the edge of the soundboard and the inside wall of the call determines the volume of the call, a wider gap is going to be louder. The height of the pedestal determines the roll over or break in the call and the pitch of it. A high pedestal gives very little roll over and a higher pitched squeaky sounding call, a low pedestal gives a deep hollow flat sounding call with a soft sounding roll over. Once you find the right height and diameter that fits your calls cut an shape the surface won't make a difference. Your glass surfaces sound ok, but your slates don't, that tells you, you still need to work on your pot design some, either your walls are to thick or to thin, your bottom is to thick or to thin, your sound holes may be to big or to small or to close to the calls edge, the thickness of wood around the playing surface may be to thick?
Let us know what the difference is between the sounds of your glass call and your slate calls?

[MS]

The diameter of your pedestal determines the amount of rasp you want in a call. The smaller the diameter pedestal the more rasp you'll get, the bigger the diameter the cleaner it'll sound. The distance between the edge of the soundboard and the inside wall of the call determines the volume of the call, a wider gap is going to be louder. The height of the pedestal determines the roll over or break in the call and the pitch of it. A high pedestal gives very little roll over and a higher pitched squeaky sounding call, a low pedestal gives a deep hollow flat sounding call with a soft sounding roll over. Once you find the right height and diameter that fits your calls cut an shape the surface won't make a difference. Your glass surfaces sound ok, but your slates don't, that tells you, you still need to work on your pot design some, either your walls are to thick or to thin, your bottom is to thick or to thin, your sound holes may be to big or to small or to close to the calls edge, the thickness of wood around the playing surface may be to thick?
Let us know what the difference is between the sounds of your glass call and your slate calls?

My glass and crystal calls (both with slate soundboards) have great rollover and rasp (depending on how I condition the surface, usually with diamond grit sandpaper) but my slate calls are flat, with less rollover and rasp.  I've been making them with the same dimensions as my glass and crystal calls (pedestal, overall height, and bottom and side thickness).  Based on replies to my post, it sounds like I need to make my pedestal smaller in diameter.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

You can try it a little smaller in diameter to see if that'll help? Also how thick is your pedestal? The thickness should be about 1/8" thick wall, and if your leaving your pedestal platform solid (full ring) try opening it up. The less glued contact points the better  performance you'll get.