The elk calls are here and ready for you!

                        "Sweet Mama"  (SMCC) is here!

For years I have used numerous cow elk calls made from a number of different materials, or a mix of materials.  None of these calls gave me the rich, sweet, soft sound that you actually hear when you listen to the heard as the cows and calves talk among themselves.

In order to make a more realistic sounding call than what I could find on the maket, I asked a friend of mine, who is a professional muscian, to help me find a way to reproduce those soft higher pitch, but rich cow and calf mews and calls.   

I tried numerous woods, and blends of woods (maple, walnut, black walnut, cherry, bloodwood) searching for just the right blend of woods to reproduce the mouthpiece like you find on a muscial instrument.

Other calls seem to have a tinny, or harsh sound to them, they were just not gutsy enough for what I wanted, so using these woods I worked on pitch, angles, length of mouthpiece and sound chamber, thickness of the reed (I even tried a clairnet and oboe reed - too hard to keep moist) .

"Sweet Mama" is about 3 1/2 inches long and 1 inch around and made of cherry.  The mouthpiece is designed like the mouthpiece of a clarinet, and thus needs to be used with the reed down and the wood up.  This allows the sensitive lower lip to control the pitch and pressure on the call.  Simply place your lower lip in the middle of the reed pressing down on the mouthpiece with your upper lip.  Keep it about half way on the mouthpiece to start with, then blow into the call and let the wood and reed do the work.

Move your lips on the mouthpiece forward and back (toward the barrel and back toward the tip) using light lip pressure as you blow into the call.  You will get different pitches as you move our lips and can increase volume by blowing harder or softer.

There is no doubt that the wood, the angle of the mouthpiece and the structure of the sound chamber makes the soft, but rich sound I was looking for.  You will love this call.