I recently had an opportunity to build new wedges for 3 Johnny Marsh calls that had missing wedges but had their original inserts and barrels. The customer also had the original reeds but 2 reeds were damaged so new reeds were fitted and tuned to those inserts. In order to make the wedges I made duplicate inserts, turned the wedges and then transferred and fitted the new wedges to the original inserts.
What I noticed about the original inserts was the following:
__ The original inserts all had slightly different tone channel lengths. I believe the variations in tone channel length and angle were the result of the drilling operation to produce the angled (tapered) tone channels. When the insert waste material is cut away , variations in drilling angle result in variations in tone channel length. Variations in the depth of the waste cut (no jig used) also produces variations in tone channel length. The deeper the waste cut the shorter the resulting tone channel.
--The original reeds were virtially identical to the reeds I use, mine just have rounded rear corners.Reed thickness was 0.006" and the material used was phosphor bronze which is pretty standard for older Reelfoot style calls.
--The inserts were all tuned to their unique tone channel lengths by trimming the overall reed length . Each reed had been trimmed, from the rear, to work with its respective tone channel.
According to one source Johnny Marsh was one of the first Reelfoot call makers to have a standard reed punch fabricated. His calls are considered to be among the "best", equal to or better than (more consistant than) a Turpin. The craftsmanship of the inserts was outstanding.
I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn from them.
Fred
