Diaphragm call talk

[Wally0510]

Hey everyone, I've been learning how to use a diaphragm call for about a year on and off just here and there I've come a long way from not even being able to making a sound to a pretty decent yelp and getting some of the other sounds coming along. Upon recommendation of a buddy of mine that can really make it talk I got a few different ghost calls from Dave Owen's and they have been a game changer. My front end sounds so much better as I have been really working on that w a combo cut that I had been using. I didn't have a ghost cut at all but it seems to be a whole lot easier to run on the whines and the soft stuff.

Is the ghost cut y'all's favorite? Or just newbie favorite?
Do you carry multiple cuts for different scenarios? Give some examples of different scenarios if you can


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[BullTom]

I have been using diaphragm calls for over 20 years now, and I have exclusively used the pinhoti purple ghost for the last 2 or 3 seasons. I can make just about any sound needed to call in a turkey (and more) with that call. It also has incredible range compared to any other call I have ever tried.

That said, everyone is different. Different mouth shapes, techniques, personal preference, etc will lead to a million different opinions on this topic. There is also the idea that different calls will elicit different responses from the same turkey. This is  true in some instances, but thats why I carry a trumpet and sometimes a box. If he doesnt like those options, he can win that day!

Just one mans opinion. I am sure you will hear several different philosphies, and they are probably all true. Thats part of what makes this all so fun. Tinker and find out what you enjoy!

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[bbcoach]

Wally, Welcome to OG.  To answer your question, Dave's Purple Ghost in low stretch was a game changer, for me as well.  The PG allowed me to make most of the vocalizations of the hen turkey and the low stretch allowed me to have so much more control for purring and soft calling.  After many years of trying so many calls, it got me thinking, who else makes low stretch calls?  Come to find out, there are several, Sadler McGraw, Gooserbat and I've found a new company out of PA that is veteran owned called Kluk Custom Calls.  I personally use the Modified Ghost Cut they call the Crying Karen in low stretch.  Plenty of low stretch options out there.  https://klukcustomcalls.com/products/crying-karen
Everything came together for me with ghost cuts and low stretch, including whines, whistles and feeding calls.  Good luck Wally!

[Wally0510]

Wally, Welcome to OG.  To answer your question, Dave's Purple Ghost in low stretch was a game changer, for me as well.  The PG allowed me to make most of the vocalizations of the hen turkey and the low stretch allowed me to have so much more control for purring and soft calling.  After many years of trying so many calls, it got me thinking, who else makes low stretch calls?  Come to find out, there are several, Sadler McGraw, Gooserbat and I've found a new company out of PA that is veteran owned called Kluk Custom Calls.  I personally use the Modified Ghost Cut they call the Crying Karen in low stretch.  Plenty of low stretch options out there.  https://klukcustomcalls.com/products/crying-karen
Everything came together for me with ghost cuts and low stretch, including whines, whistles and feeding calls.  Good luck Wally!

I appreciate it! Is the low stretch what is making the huge difference? I can hear and feel it but just wasn't sure that's what it was (that makes a lot of sense).

Do you think we are sacrificing on volume a bit?

[BullTom]

Wally, Welcome to OG.  To answer your question, Dave's Purple Ghost in low stretch was a game changer, for me as well.  The PG allowed me to make most of the vocalizations of the hen turkey and the low stretch allowed me to have so much more control for purring and soft calling.  After many years of trying so many calls, it got me thinking, who else makes low stretch calls?  Come to find out, there are several, Sadler McGraw, Gooserbat and I've found a new company out of PA that is veteran owned called Kluk Custom Calls.  I personally use the Modified Ghost Cut they call the Crying Karen in low stretch.  Plenty of low stretch options out there.  https://klukcustomcalls.com/products/crying-karen
Everything came together for me with ghost cuts and low stretch, including whines, whistles and feeding calls.  Good luck Wally!

I have tried several other "low stretch" calls simce discovering the pinhoti calls (including kluk and several other custom makers). Most of them are fine calls and easier to run than your standard off the shelf calls, but none of them are nearly as easy to run as the pinhoti pg in my opinion. Especially low end stuff.

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[bbcoach]

Up until a couple of years ago when I tried the PG, it never occurred to me to try different stretches.  I have found, through trial and error, that I am a center air flow guy, so batwing, v-cut and ghost cut have been my airflow mainstays.  When I tried Dave's PG, the low stretch just made everything come together.  I was able to vocalize the whines, whistles and feeding calls so much more effectively and with ease.  This is when I started to focus on running only low stretch calls.  Since that time, I've researched and tried several makers of low stretch calls, and the rest is history for me.  For me, the modified ghost cut gives me more rasp with the tabs that are added on the wing without sacrificing the whines and whistles.  To answer your question Wally on volume, I don't believe ghost cuts lack in volume.  These birds have amazing hearing and can hear and PINPOINT our exact location impressively.  Maybe on really windy days, yes, but that is when we need to break out a good box or a glass or metal pot to get the party started and finish with the mouth call. 

[Bowguy]

It's not just the stretch. Number or thickness of reeds, cuts, how deep even. Not every low stretch call is good, some higher stretch are easy. It depends on sound your ear likes.

[bbcoach]

It's not just the stretch. Number or thickness of reeds, cuts, how deep even. Not every low stretch call is good, some higher stretch are easy. It depends on sound your ear likes.

Explain please.  It seems to me; control of the call would be key.  What I have experienced is 2.5 to 3 thinner reeds and low stretch allows me to control the amount of air used to get the subtle sounds from a call.  Most any call can give you yelps, cutts and clucks from it but a truly good call IMO has to be able to give the caller control with the subtle sounds for purring, whines, whistles and feeding calls.  I am not a call maker, but I don't want to carry around 3 different calls to give me that versatility and get caught with my pants down around my ankles when I don't change at the appropriate time and get busted or get a very different sound from a call when I change and the bird hangs up or even worse shutdowns completely.  If a call is too hard to blow and you can't control it, it's not a call I need to carry.  I have always heard less is more when it comes to reeds.  2 reed calls are easier to blow then 4 reeds.  Educate us please.   

[Wally0510]

Up until a couple of years ago when I tried the PG, it never occurred to me to try different stretches.  I have found, through trial and error, that I am a center air flow guy, so batwing, v-cut and ghost cut have been my airflow mainstays.  When I tried Dave's PG, the low stretch just made everything come together.  I was able to vocalize the whines, whistles and feeding calls so much more effectively and with ease.  This is when I started to focus on running only low stretch calls.  Since that time, I've researched and tried several makers of low stretch calls, and the rest is history for me.  For me, the modified ghost cut gives me more rasp with the tabs that are added on the wing without sacrificing the whines and whistles.  To answer your question Wally on volume, I don't believe ghost cuts lack in volume.  These birds have amazing hearing and can hear and PINPOINT our exact location impressively.  Maybe on really windy days, yes, but that is when we need to break out a good box or a glass or metal pot to get the party started and finish with the mouth call. 

I'm in the exact same boat it was like a switched flipped. I need to check out a modified PG as I do think the rasp is a little lacking to my ear


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[Bowguy]

It's not just the stretch. Number or thickness of reeds, cuts, how deep even. Not every low stretch call is good, some higher stretch are easy. It depends on sound your ear likes.

Explain please.  It seems to me; control of the call would be key.  What I have experienced is 2.5 to 3 thinner reeds and low stretch allows me to control the amount of air used to get the subtle sounds from a call.  Most any call can give you yelps, cutts and clucks from it but a truly good call IMO has to be able to give the caller control with the subtle sounds for purring, whines, whistles and feeding calls.  I am not a call maker, but I don't want to carry around 3 different calls to give me that versatility and get caught with my pants down around my ankles when I don't change at the appropriate time and get busted or get a very different sound from a call when I change and the bird hangs up or even worse shutdowns completely.  If a call is too hard to blow and you can't control it, it's not a call I need to carry.  I have always heard less is more when it comes to reeds.  2 reed calls are easier to blow then 4 reeds.  Educate us please.   

Brother it's been a long day. You know exactly what I'm saying. A good caller can manipulate most calls but if you think one call can do it all watch a contest caller. The switch often back n forth.
And you can't carry 3 mouth calls??

[compton30]

It's not just the stretch. Number or thickness of reeds, cuts, how deep even. Not every low stretch call is good, some higher stretch are easy. It depends on sound your ear likes.

Explain please.  It seems to me; control of the call would be key.  What I have experienced is 2.5 to 3 thinner reeds and low stretch allows me to control the amount of air used to get the subtle sounds from a call.  Most any call can give you yelps, cutts and clucks from it but a truly good call IMO has to be able to give the caller control with the subtle sounds for purring, whines, whistles and feeding calls.  I am not a call maker, but I don't want to carry around 3 different calls to give me that versatility and get caught with my pants down around my ankles when I don't change at the appropriate time and get busted or get a very different sound from a call when I change and the bird hangs up or even worse shutdowns completely.  If a call is too hard to blow and you can't control it, it's not a call I need to carry.  I have always heard less is more when it comes to reeds.  2 reed calls are easier to blow then 4 reeds.  Educate us please.   

I'll take a stab at this.

There's seemingly a million factors at play when you are making yelpers, as Bowguy noted. I've often been astounded by the change in sound that can be achieved from nicking off a sliver of latex from call. So when you're dealing with that type of variability, it can be difficult to decide what is making the call work great or conversely, what the root of your problem with it might be.

Personally, I think lower stretch calls are great for people who don't spend as much time with a call in their mouth as someone like me, who makes their own calls. The real skill of competition callers is being able to fluctuate tones like a real hen turkey does, when you have a call with higher tension, you're opening up a much wider range of tones, but they also are more difficult to regulate with less experience. With that being said, a call with a lower stretch is going to be less likely to highlight mistakes because of a lower range of tones. ie. You can be less precise and still achieve a good sound.

All in all, finding the call that fits how you call is #1 most important. OP mentioned that the light came on when he switched from a combo cut from a ghost cut. The call is built for air to be directed to a particular location and if you're not directing it to that location, well then it's not going to work as it was designed.

All of this is just my personal opinion.

[GobbleNut]

Do you carry multiple cuts for different scenarios? Give some examples of different scenarios if you can

First off, great discussion and comments. Fact is, mouth calls and their use is a complex issue. We have discussed this extensively in the mouth call section. Wally, you might want to take a look at some of those threads.

To answer your question above directly: I carry two types of mouth calls. The first type are calls generally made of thinner latex combinations and with less reed stretch...and varying reed cuts on each that allow me to produce the sounds I am looking for in specific situations. Those situations are when I want to make low-volume calls with the important sounds (to me) being accurate clucks and soft yelps. I use those calls (and sounds) mostly for early-morning "roost hunting" situations...and those calls (and sounds) have proved to be deadly for me in those circumstances.

The second type of call has generally been one with a thicker primary reed (mostly .004) over thinner stuff...and stretched with more tension. Again, I seek the sound I want by modifying the reed cuts to get there. That type of call allows me to make more aggressive sounds...particularly loud and sharp cutts (which I think is a VERY important sound to be able to make and which a lot of less-experienced mouth-call users have a hard time producing) and loud, aggressive, yelps with a more-raspy back end. I generally use these calls and sounds during the day and in situations where I am trying to find a responsive gobbler while "prospecting".

Those are the two general categories of turkey calling I want to be able to produce while hunting. In my experience, one of the other usually gets the job done in terms of finding gobblers and calling them to within killing range. 

[bbcoach]

Excellent replies Ben and Gobblenuts.  I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers here gentlemen, just trying to understand to get better!  I'm a turkey hunter and want to replicate sounds that will kill turkeys not win contests.  You guys that make your own calls and understand the nuisances of these calls can defiantly educate us.  What I am saying is when you find a call that when you pop it in your mouth and BOOM the vocalizations just pour out of you, you are like WOW, WOW!!!  BIG LIGHT comes on!  You have to ask yourself, where has this been!!  Listening to you guys, I have a long way to learning the nuisances of calling turkeys.  But what I will say, I still get it done every year in the woods not on a stage.  And for most of us, I believe this is where we want to be.  Still learning to get BETTER!  THANKS EVERYONE!