Most of my own calls are made to get the job done. Calls that give maximum results with minimum amount of care. Calls that will take a licking and keep on ticking. Kind of like the old timex commercial. All of my calls today are of open reed design. Several years ago, I made myself a jig out of black walnut. This jig was made for roughing out my delrin voices. It helps keep the holes half way centered, and gives me a guide for the band saw blade when cutting the tone board and the notch for my cork wedge system to hold reed in place. All final tuning of tone boards is done by guess and by golly with a small file. If a customer calls me with a request to make him a call, and gives me some special instructions as to special sound he needs, smaller size or whatever, then I do my best to build it the way he wants it. Are my calls truly custom? Shucks, my customers are happy so it don't really matter whether he considers it "custom" or not. Satisfied customers is the important thing. Make a good call, and deal immediately with any complaints. Once in awhile I even turn out a call that is pretty to look at too. If a cow horn howler is too pretty, my wife gloms on to it anyway. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
