Al, thank you for saying what I perceive that everone else wants to say. This topic is now running in two forums and the popular vote is leaning way more towards to negative side. Black Timber, go ahead and do what you 'feel" is right for you, but allow me to caution you with one of life's lessons.... " That many people can't be wrong"
If all these folks in the call making community are relaying feedback to you and they are all saying pretty much the same thing, perhaps you are crossing lines? I'm not going to pass judgement on you. You have the ability to do whatever you want regarding the modification of these guts. Just know now that the entire community here at THO and CCO knows what you are doing and do not approve of it. That, in and of itself should tell you something. I got blasted a few years ago for showing off calls that had Echo inserts on another forum; I was called a barrel turner and not a custom call maker. I was new to these forums and thought I was doing something wrong. So I quit using the Echo inserts and started making my own inserts. Are my inserts as good as Echo? Maybe not... but they will never be misconstrued as someone else's design. You said it took you a year and a half to come up with your "modifed" design of the FWX guts? Why didn't you use that valuable time to make your own and have them molded? I don't think SR goose guts will ever be changed so much from the original Hess design? Take a set of guts, use it them as a "pattern", and carve, whittle, drill, turn your own and move forward from there. They will be yours! No one will question that. Just like Stlez did on CCO. Duck sound boards and SR goose gut sound boards have been invented long before us... we may never come up with something to improve these items? The concept is there so we all "cheat" a little. It is accepted in that respect. I compare what you are doing to this: You buy a set of Goodyear tires, over a year and a half you scrape all the white lettering off, you remove a tread here and there, you add a few new cuts in the tread pattern with a saw of some type to "improve" the ride and traction, you paint the tires purple, and then put them on a different set of rims. You market these new and improved tires because they are the $hit. You don't sell them to race car drivers (comp callers), you sell them to mom and pop consumers (your average goose hunter). What have you done? You took a perfectly good tire, altered it, called it yours, and are making a buck for someone else's design. Do what you want... I think eventually you will lose sleep over it!
Mutt
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