The Southern Belle was created, or you could say "discovered" by building a call for a customer under our Heritage Brand - the Heritage Brand being when we take the customer's own wood from their homestead, or some other spot with special meaning to them and/or their families - and we make calls from that material.
In this case we were asked to use Southern Long Leaf Heart Pine to build box calls. The material was cut almost 150 years ago. Upon receiving this wood, my comments were "this material would surely make good boat anchors, if not turkey calls". This call would never work without our invention of the Vertical Core, and engineered paddle. We informed the customer that we would do the best job possible using their materials and our technology. This was one shot and done.
As we finished the the calls and proceeded to install the paddles on the boxes, we knew that this was one of those bonus gifts from hard work and power from above. One of a kind, not imitated from other products or copied from someone else. this was by far one-of-a-kind superiority in looks, tone and ease to use.
After delivering the project to the customer we knew that we could not let this call be forgotten. So we trademarked it the "Southern Belle" since it was constructed from Southern Long Leaf Heart Pine. For a call to be in my vest, it has to perform... and I must say, the Southern Belle spent 2010, traveling all over the country, tucked away in a well used pocket of my vest.
~Bill Zearing
Designer/Builder |
