[CatFan]

So, after hear this call on my recent trip to Arkansas I decided to give it a try. I liked the tone and that it had the nice subtle squeak in it. I heard blown by more than one guide with similar characteristics so it wasn't just an issue of one guy doing his thing. In short, I am very disappointed. I come from double reed calls so single reed is newer to me. I blew a few as a kid but that was 35 years ago. It sounds good with basic quacks and feed calls but when I attempt to give it more air from a greeting call I either can't get it to come up in tone for the first notes of the call OR it just blows over and goes way to high in tone and sounds like crap. I have all the available reed lengths and the longest (1.330") is best but I can still over blow it very easily. I do have a back ground of playing wind musical instruments so years of training results me being able to generate a lot of air pressure. Some call it hot air but I digress,

I may give them a call when I have time but wanted to see if anyone here had any tips. I am hoping this is a technique thing that I just need to adjust from blowing double reeds all my life. FWIW, I am a good caller and not a novice. I have been successfully calling and working birds to finish since I was about 15 so its not a matter of me just being totally unskilled. I think I just need to adjust my technique for the different call.

 

[bluesky2012]

May be that the call isn't tuned well, but I'd bet you answered your question right here:

I come from double reed calls so single reed is newer to me.

Going from a double reed to a single reed is like taking the training wheels off a bike. Maybe you're just now being shown where you had errors in technique.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rick Hall]

What he said. Give it time before you give up.

 

[bluesky2012]

What he said. Give it time before you give up.

Or just give it to me. Call is probably broken anyways!

Joking aside, I had this exact problem when I moved to a single reed. I struggled to break bad habits, so to force my mind to change, I actually re-learned to call completely and used my other hand to do it so I wouldn't carry over habits/poor technique. It was an investment but worth it once I got it right.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rick Hall]

In the "Way back when..." I was a double-reed guy running Originals set up as such, Ronquest sent me one of their little 1/4" Timbres to try as a double. And while I favored crisp tones and found the second reed made that small bore too mushy for my taste, I didn't just like its sound a whole lot better as a single reed, but found it by far the easiest of the singles I'd tried to run without screw-ups. And getting a good handle on it made the transition to singles I'd thought difficult a breeze.

So I've been prone to suggest that folks new to single reeds (or calls in general) give themselves the advantage of starting with an inexpensive poly small, 1/4" bored call like RNT or Echo's Timber models before moving up to larger bores.

(I've only had the "regular" bored T-1 and not tried the small-bored version T-1, but that would be an expensive trainer for those apt to desire more volume.)

 

[CatFan]

Thanks for the responses. I guess what I am looking really is some specifics on how a single reed is blow differently, if that is something someone can quantify. Perhaps there are some resources somewhere.

 

[bluesky2012]

Carlson's A-Z. Been recommended here dozens of times with good success.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CatFan]

So, I think a duck call might be one of those things you have to try a few times to make a good judgement on. I did get a few different reeds and messed around with them and now I am really starting to like this call. I've blown the same duck call I got for free at a gun show about 25 years ago and this is the first call that I like better than it. And the more I blow it, the more I like it. Also, I picked a cool tip from the Surviving Duck Season youtube channel. I'd never thought of the orientation of the call but he said he always with the tone board horizontal and the read facing down. Up sounds about the same but, in his opinion, down is better and doesn't seem to be as affected by gunk that might get in the call. He said you never want the reed vertical. Yesterday, while calling some duck, it started making weird sounds so I dropped and picked up my old call. I got to thinking and realized it had twisted in my lanyard the reed was vertical. I few quacks confirmed it sounds really bad like that. Reoriented it and all was well. I thought that was interested so figured I'd pass it along.

 

[Rick Hall]

Also, I picked a cool tip from the Surviving Duck Season youtube channel. I'd never thought of the orientation of the call but he said he always with the tone board horizontal and the read facing down. Up sounds about the same but, in his opinion, down is better and doesn't seem to be as affected by gunk that might get in the call. He said you never want the reed vertical. Yesterday, while calling some duck, it started making weird sounds so I dropped and picked up my old call. I got to thinking and realized it had twisted in my lanyard the reed was vertical. I few quacks confirmed it sounds really bad like that. Reoriented it and all was well. I thought that was interested so figured I'd pass it along.

Hopefully, time with the call will get you past that flaw. Know I found it less of an issue over time with my T1. Some other Lares owners seem stuck with it. While I passed mine along simply because it offered no improvement afield over what I'm using, having to worry about toneboard orientation would have gotten it the boot much sooner. Hate that.

And, thankfully, out of the great many calls I've run, I've only encountered three shops producing such issues in my hands.