mouthcaller

Strutter:

Why don't you consider coming to the NWTF convention in Nashville February 18-21? You can walk around in the exibit hall and run virtually every friction call that's out there, including custom calls made by guys you've probably never heard of. If you have never been I promise that you will have a blast. My son and I go for a day every year (I live only 2 hours from Nashville). The nice thing about being there is you can run a call and leave with that exact call, not another one that may or may not sound like the one you ran

I don't own a woodhaven friction call (love their diaphrams though, especially the Sadler Mcgraw Signature call). I did run several of the Codys last year at their booth and they all sounded good.

I have always used a combination of diaphrams and friction calls. I've used slate calls for years, mostly for clucking/purring but I never like the yelp much from a slate. To my ears the glass calls sound terrific and I now have several, all picked up from the convention.

My "current" favorite pot call is a custom call by Lon Trice (Lonzo's Custom Calls - Bronwood, GA) that I picked up after running every one he had left on Saturday afternoon at last year's NWTF. I must have spent 45 minutes standing at his booth trying every pot and striker combination he had. I eventually left with a glass call made from bocote wood, an exotic wood from South America that he said is very hard but has a lot of oil in it. With one of his custom laminate strikers that thing makes the most realistic yelp I have ever heard from a friction call. Someone used one of his calls to win the Georgia State Friction Championship last year. The workmanship is excellent and if something happens to it I really believe he will take care of you. He uses a very hard tempered glass in his calls that is conditioned with a stone (provided). I don't know if this is what makes them sound different, I just know they sound different to my ears.

FYI - the cocobolo calls he had sounded great as well. Like bocote, cocobolo is very dense, hard and oily. Along with his acrylic calls, his bocote and cocobola pots produced a sharp, higher pitched yelp. Hard to describe for a non-music person like me, but it really pops. These are the only friction calls I have ever ran that produce that scratchy, tension-filled yelp that I hear from live hens in the woods.

Mouthcaller

http://www.lonzoscustomcalls.com/products.html

ps: Lonzo isn't paying me a commission - wish he did. He sold 5 more calls to friends and relatives of mine after they played with my call.