>>2726572As I've been improving with the different calls(pot, box and mouth) I've bought a couple better "instruments" to see how much of a difference there was between a $40 set that came with one of each(Hunter's Specialty Raspy old Hen Set) and the next step up a $25 box(Bone Collector Booger Bottom, cherry poplar) and a $30 pot(Primos Power Crystal) and a couple different strikers. I was very pleased with both of those upgrades.
The new box is substantially smaller and lighter. The construction and sound quality are also far superior. The smaller size also makes it much easier to gobble on it.
The power crystal allowed me to start with a completely clean crystal surface and mar it up myself until it sounded good. That helped me tremendously. All I was getting out of the raspy hen pot was squeaky almost maybe sometimes OK call sounds. With the new one I can cluck, purr, kee kee, yelp and cut easily. Going back to the first one, even after re-conditioning it, I can still only get okay sounds out of it half the time. Maybe with more conditioning I could get it playing well, but why bother now that I have one that works like a champ. I also bought the Primos Triple 7 striker. It's very nice. One piece, laminated wood. Cheap too!
I was having a hard time figuring out the mouth call until I bought myself a double reed, with no cuts. All the cutouts add rasp which mask the underlying, foundational tones. Once I got rid of it, I could hear those base notes and finally start to figure it out. I can yelp, cluck and cut with it. I'm still working on purring and kee keeing, but they're getting there.