How I’ve come to judge a yelper

[ChesterCopperpot]

I've noticed a couple things over the last few years since the trumpet craze hit that got me thinking. One, it seems like every callmaker around started turning yelpers out of the blue. Two, I've seen a lot of folks posting, especially recently, about how they get the same sounds out of all their calls regardless of maker.
So I think once you've got the fundamentals of running a yelper down you can typically pick up any call and make turkey sounds with it. Odds are your clucks sound similar. Your yelps sound similar. Kees might be one sound where you notice more ease with one call over another, but regardless you get what I'm saying. One of the biggest turning points in learning is once you figure out how little air it takes to run a call. The instinct most users have up front is to use lots of air and they wind up blowing out the call. Over time they get to understand that coffee stirrer straw analogy and they come to learn how little air a good yelper actually requires. That brings me to my main point here.
How I've come to judge a yelper is by how little air is required to run it. And that's the real difference between the vast majority of calls coming out of shops. The really, really good yelper makers calls require a ton less air to run than the others. Anyone who's made calls for very long and has proficiency on a lathe can make a gorgeous trumpet, but in my opinion there are a lot of callmakers who need to go back and spend more time, much more time, working out the internals of their calls.
To give a good example of what I mean, every one on this forum knows how incredible Tony Ezolt is with cane and bone. His Jordans and his wingbones are as good or better than anyone making them. Period. At the same time, most any of us who've turkey hunted very long have toyed around with making Jordans or wingbones at one point or another. I can get turkey sounds out of every call I've attempted to make. I can cluck. I can yelp. Whatever. But the big, big difference (aside from the gorgeous fit and finish of one of EZ's calls) is the amount of air required to run those two calls. EZ's calls take no air. It takes nothing to run them. And that's from decades of experimenting and dialing those internals, those lengths. He's got everything so figured out that he knows what shaving just a tiny bit more off a section will do to the sound. If you were to ask Tony about it I'd about bet he'd tell you he's got a general range for lengths but that each call is different because with bone and cane you're dealing with irregularity. Every call requires its own tuning. But that knowledge is the same thing with the really great trumpet makers. Those internals are just so, so dialed and require so little air to run that to me they're leaps and bounds over so many of the calls being churned out by folks who didn't put that time in.
On a side note, that's why I love a callmaker like Greg Gwaltney who has spent years and years fooling with those internals, making small tweaks, trying them out, scrapping it, tweaking again. If you've followed the evolution of his calls  (an evolution that has been entirely visible and documented on this forum) you know he's put the time in. He's put the time in and it shows (or more aptly it sounds).
Anyhow, these are just some things I've been thinking about lately. In the end all I'm getting it is that the metric by which I grade a yelper is by how little air is required to run it. For me, the less air, the better.


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[Ranger]

That's a really great call, LOL, and a solid point made.  Very much agree, and of course the best judge of all is what calls turkeys respond to and blend in with the realism aspect in the woods based on their reactions. Which means in many cases little air, and little talk

[Spring Creek Calls]

I believe Chester has echoed the feelings of many

[Greg Massey]

I do agree with you. That's one reason I buy most all my air calls from someone who has been doing it for a long time. In other words he has put the time in making and perfecting his calls. Air draw / sound / tone.

I will say, I don't think all air calls sound the same, sure the sounds you're trying to achieve are the same, but the tones / sounds can be different... IMO

The 2 builders you mention are some of the best at perfecting their calls and craftsmanship. I'm proud to own calls from both of them.

[ChesterCopperpot]

I do agree with you. That's one reason I buy most all my air calls from someone who has been doing it for a long time. In other words he has put the time in making and perfecting his calls. Air draw / sound / tone.

I will say, I don't think all air calls sound the same, sure the sounds you're trying to achieve are the same, but the tones / sounds can be different... IMO

The 2 builders you mention are some of the best at perfecting their calls and craftsmanship. I'm proud to own calls from both of them.

My two absolute favorites are Permar and Ellis. I've personally never ran a call that I could run with less air than one of Anthony's XTs. That call is just so tuned and seems to hold its on back pressure in a way that no other call I've ran does.

I mentioned this to Anthony once and he told me this—I don't think he'd mind me sharing—but he said, "I first heard Mark Sharpe saying when he plays one it's how quiet he can get. How he would cut the air in half, then cut it in half again to see how quiet and low it would get. And that stuck with me. Seems calls that hit that wall in the middle of the Yelp and drop off have that perfect internal resistance. There is a math equation in getting to that place. I'm not sure what it is. lol. But there is one. And everyone who has achieved it has internals that fit into it. Although with different measurements, they hit that same back pressure."

It's like the golden equation of yelpers and I wholeheartedly believe in it.


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[davisd9]

1 - easy of play
2 - soft calling ability

[EZ]

Lot's of good stuff on this thread.

One thing I've learned over the years is that everyone plays an air instrument just a little different.
I can only build a call to suit my standards...but that's for me.

AGE and Mr. Ralph's calls seem to cover many folk's styles and abilities. I know they are two of my favorites, but there are many others as well.

[ChesterCopperpot]

One thing I've learned over the years is that everyone plays an air instrument just a little different.

I can only build a call to suit my standards...but that's for me.

I think you're absolutely right about that, EZ. When it comes to wingbones, I can use the ones I make as locator calls with good yelps and cuts and clucks, but I can dial yours back to run off nothing. Yours are just so damn dialed they don't require any air to run. If I tried to use that same amount of air on one of mine I'd get no sound at all.


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[paboxcall]

One of the biggest turning points in learning is once you figure out how little air it takes to run a call...Over time...they come to learn how little air a good yelper actually requires.

That bears repeating, an inescapable aspect of the learning curve. A new caller doesn't know until they know.

[Yoder409]

Very good post Chester !!!

And lots of good input coming in.   

[Crowstalker]

I've bought calls that get me out of breath.  Anything good runs effortlessly.  Funny how we learn this. But I have a bunch that run for days on one breath.  That's the difference between a good call or a great call


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