PorkChop wrote:I can tune a goose call but I would not even know where to begin with a duck call.
Though you'll find they can vary by model, Rolling Thunder sells extra reeds for all of them. Three should be plenty, but get five in case you get impatient, try to skip using your current best as a template only and eff it up by cutting too much from it. And get some of the appropriate cork, as well.
Here's a quick course I recently posted elsewhere (twice?):
Since I'm not a collector and sell or give away nearly all calls that don't make the grade, I never cut the shop-tuned reed, but mark it with an "O" for original and save it to go with the call to its next owner. I use that original reed as a template to mark a starting place on a new, uncut reed with a fine point pen. If the "O" reed is too light/short to suit me, I make my fist cut on the mark's outside edge. If too heavy/long, as in the Singleton's (and most everything Jim's tuned for me) case, my first cut is along the mark's inside edge. I'll repeat that process using the last-cut reed as my new template and cutting
the thinnest possible sliver from the appropriate edge of my new marks until the tuning gets worse, instead of better. The idea being to always use the current.best reed as a template, rather than cutting it again, so that when you eventually go too far, you'll still have that best possible reed.
Might oughta add here that you'll want to be cutting the base end of the reed, not the dagger tipped working end.