Here is somethnng I wrote up a few months ago, parts of it will explain how to learn to tune a toneboard. It is not all inclusive, but if you work at it you soon will be able to tune calls in yoursleep.
Marvin
My thoughts on tuning an open reed. First buy a sheet or 2 of Mylar, this can be found at sewing stores, usually in the quilting area. Quilters use it to make patterns. Now gather up all of the open reed calls that you have available regardless of their source. Then make up a worksheet and fix your self a notebook to record all the information that you will get out of this project. You will need to record on the work sheet, what happens when you shorten the reed, make it a little thinner, dog ear the corners, round off the tip. This is your worksheet, for a beginner it will be invaluable. If you get away from callmaking for even a few weeks it will save you time getting you back in the groove. You will learn the basics, one a reed too long is hard to blow. Too short and you won't call anything in.
Now take one call at a time and take out the reed, then make a handful of reeds for it, make it a little wider and a little longer than the original reed. Then try one of them. Make a note of how it changed the sound from the original. Then trim the front of the reed, try it again and make your notes Cut it shorter and do it again, and make your notes, then again. Always keeping notes as to the sound and the ease of blowing the call.
When the reed is too short, take the second reed and cut it the longest length that sounded the best or was the easiest to blow. Now you are ready to trim the sides of the reed. You will do the same thing as you did on the length, you will trim a little off both sides and try and then write your notes. You do this until you are at the optimum sound that you are looking for. Do not forget to write down in your notes what you have been doing.
Now take another reed and trim it to the size of the last one leaving it about a 1/16" .larger. now dog ear the front corners just a little, again try it and write down the results. Play with thinner, shorter etc. until you get that optimum sound that you are looking for. Round the front, cut it at more of an angle do what it takes, but write down what you did and what the result was.
Now you are close, take another reed and cut it too what size and sound that you had from your experiments sounded the best to you. Now it is critical that you only take off thousandths not 1/16s of an inch. By this time you should have a good sound. If not start all over and do it again. Remember you are only on your first of many calls. But the first one will be the hardest to tune. After the first couple of time you will get the hang on it and know after you first blow on the reed what needs to be trimmed and about how much. I should say most of the time, there will be some toneboards that you make that will never sound right even if you had divine help.
Now that you have the sound that you like compare your reed to the original, they will be different, maybe close or maybe a lot of difference. But you are tuning to the sound that you want not to what someone else likes. There is a lot of fiction in that you must tune your call to sound like everyone does. that is pure bull. No 2 people blow a call the same. so you tune it for yourself. If a customer wants a different sound you can tune it for them. When you make a call tune it your way, when you sell a call these notes will help you tune it to what the customer wants.
Okay now repeat the process with all of your other open reed calls. When the wife, kids , pets and neighbors decide to kill you. Take a break, study all of your notes and then try doing it again. they will get used to it.
Last not but not least, there are some customers that do not know what they want but will tell you they want this sound, then change their mind, st some point in time you will become frustrated with them. Tell them here it is if you like it okay, if not send it back and you will send their money back. life is too short to put up with these type of people, or better yet send them to me, it doesn't bother me one bit when I tell someone where to go. Some of my best customers today are the ones that were a royal pain 20 years ago, after I told them where to go they started to understand the process a lot better.
Marvin