Howler Question ??????

[THO Game Calls]

I see a lot of call makers offering howlers for sale on the various boards.  Most if not all of them use commercial tone boards.

My question for you all is:

Are the tone boards that you are using SPECIFICALLY designed to be howlers or are you using a commercial tone board that is a "do it all" tone board?

Thanks

Al

[bigben]

the few howlers I do make and I mean few I make the toneboard.  but I believe if I was to make more then I am now I would make some on the cnc mill at work or mold em.  there is a lot of work that goes into a toneboard and atleast with the howlers that I make is atleast half the work if not more. 

[THO Game Calls]

Thanks for the reply Ben.

The question I have, is if call makers are finding that they can interchange the commercial tone boards between distress calls and howlers, and if so, are they achieving the sound they want more with the size of the barrel or material used to make the howler than the toneboard?  Or, are there specific tone boards made for howlers?

AL

[HuntnCarve]

Al,

Depending on the time I want to devote to a call, I'll either make my own toneboard, or use a production style (K.0. board).  For me, and my style calls, I've found that I have to "modify" the board to get the sound I want out of it.  I usually have to open up the air channel or taper it, removing material.  Particularly when using a wider reed style.  If I wanted it to be a "strictly" distress call, I would leave the board as is, and use a narrow reed that just barely covers the air channel.  Usually in my call posts, I'll specify "modified KO" toneboard, to distinguish what I've done. For me, the bottom line is that I am cutting into every production style toneboard that I chose to use.   Sometimes when it's all said and done, I'll have found that I could have just as easily used one of my own boards?   I will agree, the world of cast toneboards, and a 5/8" drill bit,  has unleashed a raft of new howler makers. LOL!

Dave

[THO Game Calls]

Thanks for the reply Dave,

I'm not concerned at all if a person uses a molded or commercial tone board.

I am wondering if the the tone boards we buy are capable of performing on both ends of the spectrum, from distress to howling, as they come out of the box. and from your post, it seems that you at least feel the need to modifiy them somewhat. 

For those that do not modify them, what do you do to base the final sound on?  Is it the length of the barrel or the diameter of the bore that gives you the sound that you are looking for?  Is it just a change of reed thickness, width? 

Al

[weedwalker]

.

[keekee]

I don't use a tone board but a mouth piece on my howlers. But there is still modifications to them. And how the mouth piece sets on the horn has allot to do with what sound I can get. The size, thickness, and type of horn make a big difference in the sound. The inside diameter and shape of the horn compared to to the mouth piece sets as well.

I guess were I'm going with this is, weather it be a tone board or mouth piece, each horn is different. The difference in the horn makes the air flow different on each call and the back pressure. Depending on the time spent to find the sweet spot and tune the reed or mouth piece and set it at the right angle makes a difference in sound.

I think it would be hard to get one tone board to give both sounds with out some kind of modifications per call. Unless it was molded the exact same every time. Modifications maybe just a reed change, sanding of the tone board. I think it could be done but you would loss sound quality of some kind on either distress or howling I would think?


Brent

[THO Game Calls]

Thanks for the reply Brent,

Sorry to hear about your furs.  What a blow.

Al

[Brad H]

I've never used a premade toneboard in a call I made, but I do own a few. The ones I do have that are meant to be howlers could go either way, but make better distress calls IMO. The only production or commercial mouthpiece that I really liked as being the best of both worlds is the Red Desert Howler. And I mean just the mouthpiece without the wood barrel. A lot of people won't agree with that being that the mouthpiece can be an air thief as a distress call just by design. I also tweaked mine some so it would work like I want my howlers to work.

I prefer a longer, thicker reed with better air flow for howlers. A thinner, narrow reed for distress calls makes a prey distress sound I like better. The design is pretty much the same though with the reed barely covering the air trough and breathing room between the call base and reed.

I have made deer antler howlers that worked great for howling and also make killer jackrabbit (low pitched) distress. But a call like that won't make the high ear piercing squeals a thinner reed "distress only" call will make. And the toneboard/air trough combo on a call like that won't work for the type of distress reed I like.

So I guess basically it comes down to.....one toneboard, for me, will never be the best of both.

Brad

[THO Game Calls]

Thanks for the reply Brad,

as you know, I have an open reed antler call and a howler made by you.   Obviously a distinctly different sound with each call.  I never compared the two toneboards, but I think I will tonight.   The antler has a clear mylar reed that seems to be n the .010 area and the howler uses MylarA and I am pretty sure it is .014 maybe thicker. 

Biut for you guys using the commercial tone boards, is there one for howlers and one for distress or do you just use the same one for both types of calls?

Thanks

Al

[Lonehowl]

Al, you getting ready to have some boards molded up? : )

My way of thinking is, although you can use any board for any purpose( maybe not perfectly but it will work) a howler board should be different from a distress board.
I prefer my distress boards to have anywhere from 1/8 to 3/16 SQUARE air channel, and howler boards to have 1/4 or so SQUARE air channel and also a bit longer board.
Just my preference.

Sorry I cant answer your question specificly, as I dont use molded boards.
Marc

[THO Game Calls]

Thanks for the reply Marc,

Having tone boards molded or CNC'd for the business is something that I have been looking into, but it is not why I posted the question.

I have aways thought that there was a difference in the tone board geometry of a howler board and a distress board, and like you, I like my howler boards to be a bit longer, and, flatter, and allow for more air flow.  My distress boards can certainly do a howl but it is higher pitched and not what I would choose as my first choice in the woods. 

Because most call makers now use the commercial tone boards, I was wondering if there were distress and howler boards available, and if not, what call makers are doing to their calls to make them howlers when using a distress style tone board?  Other than just making the call longer than say 4 inches?   

Al

[Lonehowl]

Cool, good questions, that is something I'd  like to know too......

[iahntr]

 Interesting discussion. Sorry I don't have enough first hand experience to offer a lot of input. I do have a couple different calls and toneboards that I do plan on playing with. I have two calls that came with I believe the same toneboard, with different bodies, one intended to be a howler, and one a distress call. I want to play with reed thickness and width to see what kind of sounds I can get from the distress call.
  Again, interesting. Thanks

[Rich]

THO,

My ears tell me that for a coyote howler to sound like a "real" coyote, a megaphone is needed up front. Cow or buffalo horns work well.  Every horn creates a different amount of back pressure than the next one. This is one of the factors that causes pitch breaks. Although the same basic tone board can be used on the howlers, the tone board or "reed bridge" needs to be fine tuned on each and every howler.  Sometimes I can install a reed, eye ball the bugger and a few swipes with a flat bastard file has a howler running just fine. Others take a lot of time before I am satisfied.