appreciate the replies guys. problem is ur talking about tweeking etc and i don't know the diff. between a tweeked and an untweeked call. i'm not a caller, i just like to make stuff. but........i'm sure when i send the nephew some of em he can get a good evaluation or two. how about the commercial stuff you buy at cabellas? i assume that stuff is mass produced and untweeked. right?
There will be people that will disagree with this, but overall the commercial calls sound as good as most "customs". They both use the same reeds. There is only one manufacture of the bulk of the reeds used in predator calls. You can only do so many things to a reed that is approximately 1/4" wide and around .002 to .003 thick. Sure you can blade them, but that weakens the reed, better to use a different internal design. If you want a custom closed reed call you can change the insides and get different sounds, companies can do the same thing, except they have to get a new mold made to get the line out to the public.
Next why would a company spend the money to have molds made to make a call that doesn't sound good. A good mold starts at about $10,000 for professional injection molding. Those designs were tested and tested again before they spent that kind of money. Fit and finish, in most cases customs will win hands down, but sometimes even some of the customs also leave a little to be desired.
My 2 cents if I were you I would first I would get with the nephew. Learn everything he knows about the calls you want to make. Ask him what he wants the call to do and TAKE NOTES while you are listening. Watch some You Tubes about predator hunting, find out how other hunters use their calls. Buy some commercial calls, look on ebay, find some cheap "customs, old calls and whatever lights your fire. Buy a handful of different reeds, switch out the reeds in the calls you have acquired to see what changes what from one call design to another. During this time keep taking NOTES.
Now you are about ready to start turning calls, take measurements of the calls, change a little here and little there. See what happens to the sound, and TAKE NOTES. On the JC reed calls there are 3 places, the mouth opening, the reed holder and the exhaust, the combination of changes is unlimited. To start forget about pretty, go for the sound. Pretty calls can call in animals, but poor sound works against the hunter.
Good luck.
Marvin
