Pot calls

[jungroot26]

Hello am am just starting to make pot calls and I'm not really sure what types of wood I should be using. Thank you for the input!

[WillowRidgeCalls]

With pot calls it really doesn't make that much of a difference unless your looking for something fancy looking. I've use a cheap pine at $.23bf to ebony at $72.bf. The sound of a call means everything. That being said, good woods to start out with and not break the bank, are cherry, poplar, walnut, all are good sounding domestic woods that are easy to get at a good price. Once you have mastard the art and sound your looking for, then the wood choises are endless. Which ever way your making your calls, those woods give you 3 differennt types of woods to work with at 3 different hardness levels.
Strikers are another story, once you got your sound your looking for, your strikers are your tuning forks for your calls, they bring out the sound and rasp in the call. That is why most carry a couple calls and 12 different strikers.

[Steve_In]

First off welcome to the forum. :D Pots are made from just about every kind of wood, hard woods being preferred. You will have to experiment to find out what is best. I really like Chestnut, Curly maple, walnut and burly cherry. I think the good call makers could get a cow pie to sound sweet. If you are making calls for yourself then use what YOU like. I don't make calls but I think the construction of the call and relationship of the soundboard to the playing surface are more important than wood. Also there is a recent post on strikers that will help you out.

[jungroot26]

Thank you guys! Do I absolutely need a sound board in the call? I just ordered some slate and glass at the same size thinking that's all I would need for now. I'll have to post some pictures of some of the calls for you guys to see

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Some builders use a soundboard, some don't. It depends on the inside cut your using in your pots. The soundboard controls the tone of a call, it gives the call the sound your looking to get out of it. The tone is controled by the spacing between the playing surface and the soundboard. If you have to large of a space you'll get a deep tone that has a flat sound to it, if your spacing is too thin you'll get a high pitched sound that doesn't have much of a breakover in your yelps. That is why you'll see a lot of different materials used for soundboards. glass, slate, wood, acrylic, copper, aluminum, brass, titanium, each gives you a different sound to your calls. The height of your soundboard pedestal dictates the sound of your breakover, the sound of your rasp, high or low pitched rasp, a 64th of an inch makes a huge difference to the sound of a call. When your first starting to build calls it will take a few calls to find what works best for you. Keep notes of what you did when building a call, the height the your pedistal, the thickness of your bottom, the size of the holes in the bottom, the pattern of your holes, the thickness of your sides, the depth of the call body, the space between the surface and soundboard. Then once you've found what works for you, then you can start with different woods for your pots, and the shape of your pots.
Everything you do to a call has an effect to the sound of it, the glues used to glue it together, the finish you put on it, the wood it's made from, the shape of it?
Some builders find a combo that they like right away, some never find it, it takes a few calls to find what works for you, and good note taking, until you've built enough to know how they will perform?

[Limb Hanger]

Listen to Scott, he's a wealth of knowledge and produces some awesome sounding calls; if I'm not mistaken, he had posted some links where he has demonstrated some calling.

Here's a link to a website that will provide some more insight http://www.customcalls.com/cgi-bin/yabb ... iction_brd .