Stretching over 200 on a press

[ZachH28]

Hey y'all, I recently talked to a fellow and he told me that he stretched all of his calls over 200 on his press and on average he stretches most calls to around 270. This really made me think about things. I normally stretch between 140 and 180 on triple reeds (.0035 latex over two proph). My calls are decent, but I feel like they could use a little more pop especially in the back end of my yelps. I was wondering if any of y'all stretched over 200 and if so, have you found a material combination that you thinks works best when stretched tighter?

Any feedback or ideas for me to try would be very appreciated.

Thanks again,

Zach Hayes
(919-604-0554)

[savduck]

I do some stuff guys can't believe works with my calls. Ain't saying it won't work, but you better have good lungs.

[tripleCBoykins]

225 is the highest I go!

[Aurora Wild]

Is he using a press or a jig? A jig stretches the whole reed, so more stretch is needed to get the same tension as a press, which stretches a portion of the Reed. His numbers correlate to what I did on a jig, before I got a press

[turkeykiller22]

I have stretched some between 275 and 300 on my press before. A few callers I know like their calls built this way. I will say you better be careful making your cuts in the top reed. You can blow the call out by cutting it too fast and/or deep. Its like anything though, the more you do it the better you will get.

Good luck!
Drew

[GobbleNut]

Would it be reasonable to assume that when stretching such high tensions that the material used is thicker latex?  I would think stretching thin material (proph, .003) to those high tensions would make a call way too high pitched.  Are you using .004 and above to stretch that tight?...

[GobbleNut]

After this discussion, I made several calls with heavier latex (.004) than I typically would use,...and really stretched the latex layers out, as well as adding some serious backstretch on some of them.  Again, not using any tension measuring devices, I just guessed,...but I would guess I was stretching the material a half inch or thereabouts.  How that translates to metered tension, I don't know,...but it is definitely more tension that I typically use with thinner material.

The results are very encouraging.  Really getting some good sounds out of the calls.  For anybody that hasn't tried stretching heavier latex tighter than what you might think,...I recommend giving it a go.