Tone Boards without a jig.

[Tyson Rae]

TIME OUT! Before you go buying echo inserts and filing away to your hearts content, I suggest you do a little more searching in the forum for help on your inserts or wait for some of the more experienced call makers on here to chime in and offer up some advice. For me, when I started making inserts I used Mac Dietrichs tutorial. It can be done with Louisianna style calls as well and it will help you tremendously. Here is the link, if it works http://thogamecallsforums.com/index.php/topic,17997.0.html. If not, just go to the Hand Crafting Custom Duck Calls section and look at the top for Tone Board Practice thread. There are many other tutorials on here as well. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP NOTES. Can't stress this enough. Buying an echo insert and filing it down isn't going to teach you anything if you don't understand how what you are doing affects the call.

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

TIME OUT! Before you go buying echo inserts and filing away to your hearts content, I suggest you do a little more searching in the forum for help on your inserts or wait for some of the more experienced call makers on here to chime in and offer up some advice. For me, when I started making inserts I used Mac Dietrichs tutorial. It can be done with Louisianna style calls as well and it will help you tremendously. Here is the link, if it works http://thogamecallsforums.com/index.php/topic,17997.0.html. If not, just go to the Hand Crafting Custom Duck Calls section and look at the top for Tone Board Practice thread. There are many other tutorials on here as well. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP NOTES. Can't stress this enough. Buying an echo insert and filing it down isn't going to teach you anything if you don't understand how what you are doing affects the call.

  THIS!! ^^^^  Don't listen to me!! lol... Echos are still a good learning tool though....

[Crawdad]

I personally can't see any reason to mess around with or file on the Echo inserts, they sound great as they are & you will be hard pressed to beat the sound, only reason I can see for messing around with one would be so the person using them might feel better about it & feel like he has contributed something to it , so he can say he made it his self. Kinda foolish.

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

I personally can't see any reason to mess around with or file on the Echo inserts, they sound great as they are & you will be hard pressed to beat the sound, only reason I can see for messing around with one would be so the person using them might feel better about it & feel like he has contributed something to it , so he can say he made it his self. Kinda foolish.

I used them just to get a toneboard that sounds good to me, then make a jig with that shape....   I don't think people would actually use them and just modify them would they? 

[Joe Short]

My jigs are made from drilling a hole in a block of maple and sliding in an insert, then drawing out the shape and cutting the toneboard on that specific call and the jig at the same time. I still use one of my earliest jigs done this way as my primary. When you've done enough, you can freehand a jig no problem. Eventually you'll learn what works and what doesn't, enabling you to modify whatever you want without worrying whether the sound will be up to your standards.

[AS@Smith Crafters]

I don't think I need it anymore. I took and made my own wooden jig. If any of you have an instagram you can see my results! It turned out amazing... finally.  My screen name is DMANTHEROCK.  I might look intothose echo calls later tho, thanks.

[AS@Smith Crafters]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm really figuring this out and getti g the hang of it.

[AS@Smith Crafters]

If I had a collet chuck, or jaws, and a drill chuck for the lathe this would be no problem at all, but I don't.  I think I got it pretty well handled now. I'm gunna be learning from here on what to do, but I got a good foundation now.

[stumpjumper]

Modifying an echo insert to get the sound you want   Copying an echo insert you modified    If you use an echo insert and your barrel sounds good....whether you filed it or not.....thank the call maker who built it,Rick Dunn.

Call making has turned into China....copy this copy that crap

STUMP

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

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[BLKDOGS]

Young man, I think you are on the right track to creating your own Duck call. You can create duck calls by hand filing with out a jig. But this is a hard and trying way, I know have been there. Sounds like you made a flat jig and that's a good starting point. Keep VERY close track of how and where you file! Do the same thing over and over the same way to each and every toneboard so you know what changes what.  This may be the hard way but with limited funds you will have to work a bit harder and think longer about how to turn a call with the tools you have. The old saying is "there is more than 1 way to skin a cat" and the same is true about how to turn a barrel or a toneboard. The best thing I can tell you is keep trying be consistant and think it through before you proceed. Keep on trying to do things the way you are and the rewards will follow. Ask Santa for some tooling you should have a good list by that time of year.

Get a pile of dowle rods and start drilling cutting and Filing save each one to compare to the next one. 
Good Luck and most of all have fun.

[Chris at Owens Custom Calls]

I would stay away from Echo's period.  Find your own sound by taking the time to learn.  That means time, time, and more time.  Don't be afraid to throw wood away, and stay away from trying to make them pretty until you find your sound.  I've said this before, but it needs to be said again.  Under this section of the forums, click on the very last page.  Read every thread no matter if the title seems relevant to you or not.  Work your way back to page one.  There is a wealth of information here and most of your questions have been answered.  There are even answers to questions that you haven't thought of yet.  I still do this at least once a year.  Learn from every mistake you make and you will eventually start putting the pieces together.  On another note, I have seen calls turned on a drill press with a filed down screwdriver.  My point is that if you have the desire, you don't need all the latest tools.  Buy them as you go. 

[Jeff @ Mutt Calls]

Modifying an echo insert to get the sound you want   Copying an echo insert you modified    If you use an echo insert and your barrel sounds good....whether you filed it or not.....thank the call maker who built it,Rick Dunn.

Call making has turned into China....copy this copy that crap

STUMP

THAT !!!

[dogcatcher]

There is enough info on this forum and the CCO forum that if you take the time to read and take notes you can make a duck call at minimum expense.   That is is if you take the time to experiment with what you learn as you read, making duck calls isn't rocket science, it is common sense.  There is no instant gratification, no "Wow this is simple" solution. 

Every question that you can think of has been asked before and answered numerous times in several different versions.  There are also a lot of questions that a lot of people have never even thought of because they didn't know there was a question like that to ask.  There is no reason anyone cannot make a duck call if they have the basic tools and the knowledge of how to use them.  Read some of the history about callmaking, these fancy chucks were not even dreamed of, jigs were homemade, they made do with what they had available, because the masters knew what their tools were capable of. 

Marvin

[R.FINCHUM]

these guys are dead on. Guys like Dud Faulk and some of the early call makers used a pocket knife and bamboo or anything they could get their hands on. We call them masters now but back then they were just guys that wanted to make a call and did. I am a call maker but nowhere close to accomplished. There are a few around but not many. The first thing I do when I start to do something new is go to a tutorial started and added to by many guys that have been doing it a long time. Chic majors learned from someone and added to it. Butch Richenbach learned from Chic and added to it, Rick Dunn the same, etc. I learned from everyone on here. I would have given up if not for you guys sharing. One thing about the echo inserts, Wade and Ryan both have stated if you send them a insert made from echo, they recognize them and wont make a jig. For AS, at 17 you said you make some pens for gas money and it would be fun to make calls to sell. Do you hunt, and do you know how to make a call sound like it is supposed to. I have bought some echo inserts for cheap calls to give away but I never thought of filing one to get a better sound, they are some of the best sounding inserts already. The only way I found of feeling like I was a call maker, good, bad or indifferent, was to get a jig and wooden dowels and  start burning wood and experimenting for my own sound. Without that you are a barrel maker. I know some guys wont agree, but that is my feelings. Thanks to Aaron, Braz, Jim Dester, Brian Byers and everyone else who has posted or helped me and others we can do that. Love this forum