Eastern red cedar and yellow cedar box

[Spur806]

Hey guys, started fooling with some box calls and am having trouble getting a consistent sound from cedar/yellow cedar, or cedar/cypress, with the red cedar as the box. Any ideas? I'm at my wits end with this combo

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Cedar can be a very fussy wood in box calls. It has to be a very tight and straight grained piece of cedar, other wise you'll get one side that sounds good and the other side is dead sounding. Cedar has larger sized pours in it and you have to be careful of what finishes you put on also because it will fill some of the pours and some not, which causes a strange sounding call. When I finish a cedar box, I wax it first, then put the finish on over the wax. The wax fills the pours and dosen't change the sound and the finish seals the box and gives it a more uniformed sound.

[Spur806]

Thanks Scott, what type of wax do you use? I just thought it was weird because any other lid combos played great on it, (walnut,maple, Purple Heart, cherry, ext. ) thanks for your input.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

I use HOWARD CITRUS-SHIELD, it's a paste wax designed especially for wood use. In box calls some combos just won't work together, they should, but they don't.  Have you tried using a thicker lid in those combos, sometimes that's all it takes? Have you had other calls in those combos play good? Sometimes you just get a bad piece of wood that has no sound quality in it at all in it, I've had a few cedar pieces that I've gotten that way, tight straight grain and dead as can be, one end of the board has great sound the other end sound like cardboard, no visual difference in the board, but sound is completely different.

[Spur806]

That must be what it is, thanks for your input, must just be a dead peice of cedar, thanks for the idea with the wax as well, I'll give it a try on my next one