Need help from you box call makers...

[three11]

I have made a couple of boxes, and can't quite get what I want. One sounds pretty good, the other is basically kindling. Both were carved from cedar. My questions: What does depth, width, and length do to the sound of the box. Specifically, does a deeper and wider box sound lower pitched and vice/versa? Or is it all dependent on side thickness? Also, what woods do you prefer to use, and why? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jake St. John]

I make both a Turpin reproduction call and a Stribling reproduction call. Both are carved, and I have not seen an original one made out of cedar. I made one out of cedar one time, and that was the last that I made out of cedar. Cedar is a soft wood and does better in the smaller yip yip calls as I refer to them. All of what you mentioned comes into play on a carved box call. Density of the wood, thickness of the sides, how you feather the sides, thickness of the paddle has a lot to do with all of the above. Making carved box calls is a trial and error work of art. It has taken me 30 years of making them to get a consistant product. I would stay with straight grain mahogany and Cherry or Mahogany and Walnut for starters. My best sounding calls are made with mahogany lids and walnut boxes, or cherry lids and mahagony boxes. When you get one that turns out, and you start killing turkeys with it, you will get an emense sense of satisfaction. I use to use a mouth call when I first started turkey hunting and an old lynch box. I still take a mouth call to the woods, but I will seldom use it. I take two tried and true homemade boxes to the woods on every hunt. One is a very loud cutting and cackling call that has a great gobble yelp on the left and the sweetest hen you ever heard on the right, the other is a box that will make a mature gobble, but has a good gobbler and hen on it. Both make the softest tree yelps you ever heard. A lot of times a bird will work to one and won't the other. I am attaching a picture of Gator's two calls that will do all of the above. He takes better pictures than I do. I'll send them in the next post.

[Jake St. John]

Cherry Lid, Mahagony box

[Jake St. John]

Mahogany Lid/ Walnut Box

[Jake St. John]

PM me three11, I can look at what you have and make some suggestions to change the sound. You can always go from higher to lower pitch, but not vice versa.

[swamprooter]

Three 11.....generally the thicker the sides , the higher the pitch. Different woods have slightly different tones. Like St.Jake ..i like mahagony boxes but i use cedar lids. I'm makin a Neil Cost reproduction like dozens and dozens of others. Another trick is to thin your side thickness from front of call to the back ( go slightly thinner as ou go back)at a continous taper. Note breaks over more smoothly for me..No one has told me this but i "learned" from putting a micrometer on a dozen or so Top callmakers years ago. like St.John said ..becareful not to thin too much....if so..they make neat coin baskets.......wider and deeper calls are obvious relevant to lid width....My experience is that the note does hold together after you get to a certain size call. Boat paddle calls have addressed by having longer rails than traditional boxes thus are "louder"...really they are only louder because the stroke is longer!.. hence if you want a louder call.....have the paddle contact to the rail...longer or curve flatter?!.....now thats a hard call to make..a flatter rail on a traditional box.....good luck