As others have posted the best goose call is the call you are the most confident with. Having said that there is no doubt in my mind that a skilled short reed caller with out call the best flute caller. If you hunt in a competitive environment, best start off with a short reed as blowing flutes will only reinforce poor calling habits. As far as tone goes, I have to agree with Shawn Stahl. Higher pitched calls kill geese, lower pitched calls win contests. Short Reed calls are readily available from $25.00 to $200 and some like th GK Jack Miners will cost ya more than that. You don't always get what you pay for. Scott Thrienen won many contest with a Tim Grounds SuperMag Polycarb. He now also uses a Tim Grounds ProMag. Many call manufacturers produce both high end acrylics and lower end inexpensive polycarbs, delrin or injection molded calls that may or may not have the exact same guts as its acrylic versions. There are many great calls out there and my best advice is to get into the short reeds and truly learn and practice with them. Find the whole tone range that the call is capable of. You can sound plenty "goosey" with higher toned calls. There are many great instructional tools like Shawn Stahls Honker Talk and Fred Zinks Ancient art of Paralizing as well as Dave Smiths Breathrough II. As in everything else, practice, practice, practice.