The best thing to do is head for one of the big hunting shows (we have the Dixie Deer Classic coming up in Raleigh in late FEB). There will usually be a couple of dozen call makers with their wares for sale at the shows - they will demonstrate and you can try any of their calls. Get a slate pot and a glass pot and try some different strikers; you can find what you like pretty easily that way. Good luck and good hunting!
This is good advice. I will never buy another friction call that I can't run and listen to first. There is so much variation from one call to another that Brand X Model Y call #1 may be fantastic and call #2 may be awful. I think that is particularly true of mass produced calls. Some of the semi-custom calls are uniformly good, but they do differ one from another somewhat in pitch and tone. I guess at the end of the day, most of them do sound like turkeys, but some sound WAY more like turkeys than others to my ears.
I wish I was good enough with mouth calls to just use whatever I find on sale, and I am sure that works for some callers. Unfortunately, I just can't make some of them do what I want. My all-time favorite is a Quaker Boy World Champ. I wish I had kept up with how may birds I have called up over the years running one of those calls. I think though that everyone's technique is a bit different so the mouth call that sounds great for you may not sound good for me. The bad thing is the only way to find out is to buy one and try it.
