I don't know if it's universal across all of their calls, but as far as their predator calls go, I wanna know what gives?
I have a few K&H predator calls from 10-15yrs ago that I've used off and on ever since. They were a little soft (assuming compacted nylon bodies), so they don't have as crisp of squeal as I'd like, say from an acrylic or hardwood call, but they're durable, high quality calls, and they do the job well. I've used these calls over the years to KO a ton of coyotes.
However, I picked up 3 new Knight & Hale calls a few weeks ago (the new translucent "acrylic" hourglass shaped bodies, new for 2011), and I have to say, I'm more than disappointed
.
The bodies are harder plastic, which would have improved the crispness, but they're too thin, so they sound more "plastic-y" than the older K&H calls. The nylon bell threads into the mouthpiece, but is really poorly fit (and is also too thin), so the calls are really breathy. Out of the package, I could tighten the threads as far as I could by hand, plug the mouthpiece outlet, and blow air through the threads on all 3. I added some teflon tape to seal the threads, and it solved the problem, but in my opinion, that's not something a call should NEED to function.
Out of the box, the red "Ultimate Predator" model would take all the air I had and never make a sound. I had to pull it apart, use it as an open reed to figure out what it was supposed to sound like, then trim the reed and add an o-ring to make it work. Still an incredibly breathy call (1/2" wide reed with ONE flute/air channel in the tone board). Not so sadly, on my 3rd or 4th trip afield with these calls I broke the body of the "Ultimate Predator" in the bottom of my pack. Not a big loss, but still frustrating. Coyote calls should be a lot tougher than these flimsy things.
Ultimately, I only bought them to try them out, since I already have too many predator calls, but as it stands, I'm pretty sad that I spent money on them.