Okay, a friend of mine just bought a call press from feather ridge and got into making calls. He made a couple for me with my favorite cut, but it doesn't sound quite as good as the one I bought from the manufacturer and now we're wondering what should we change to get it sounding as good, if not better than the original? We made some with different latex thickness for the top reed and I have two that I could use, but not really HAPPY with them just yet. I think they should sound better. Sort of like reloading shells. You should be able to reload your own shells and get a load worked up to shoot better than factory shells due to the ability to keep trying different loads until you find that one that outshoots them all. I understand that, but we know nothing about call making, and I'm seeking the expert's opinions who have been making calls a lot longer than we have. What do you try first to get the sound you want from a call? We have prophylactic for the bottom reed, and is this stuff any good? The calls sort of have a high pitch squeal at times. Some have been flat with no high front end on the yelps, etc. We used 135 for side tension. How will more or less side tension affect the call? How about back tension? How will more or less affect the call's sound? How about the distance from the top reed to the second reed? How will moving them closer or further apart affect the sound? I'm scrolling through all the posts trying to find some help on this but I thought maybe you all could give us some guidance on what to try next. Any advice given would be greatly appreciated, as we have enjoyed tinkering around with the press making calls, but so far we're just wasting material with our experiments. Does it get easier?? Ha ha, I hope as we're pretty bummed right now. I guess we thought it was a little easier to produce some gobbler killers than we've done so far. Our wives won't think much of the big investment if we do nothing but throw them away once we build them if you know what I mean. Help, please.... PM me if you want, either is fine, just please give me some guidance.. We're lost!!
