talkbox

D

ditnoj

New member
Hey.

I guess this question should go here:

You guys of course remember the talkboxes (That's what me and my crowd called them, anyway) the deal with the nasty plastic tube you stuck in your throat and then you /talked sang and played through your guitar.

What can a combine or invent to imitate that effect? I have a Triton and a DPS16. I have no outboard rack units (open to any donations, of course!)

Thanks in advance for the help!

D out ITNOJ
 
The Heil Sound Talkbox. What a hoot that was... You could do the same sort of thing with a vocoder, but nothing is really gonna sound like the talkbox except another talkbox.

You can build them pretty easily, though. Back in the '70s, I built one for a guitarist using a surplus (probably stolen) drive-in-movie-theater speaker in the original beat-to-hell aluminum weatherproof enclosure, a red plastic funnel, and some 1/2" plastic tubing from the neighborhood hardware store. Worked just fine, and that honking old aluminum case with the funnel spastically duct-taped onto the front was *just the thing* for their grungy stage image. That was when grunge was _grunge_...

I think the actual Heil boxes just had a 1" midrange horn driver in the box- I never opened one up. Pawnshops and Ebay would be the place to look on the cheap, I think.

More info, from a Google search on "Heil Sound Talkbox":

http://www.olywa.net/blame/talkbox.htm
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/solidgold/29/talkbox.html
 
One of the bands I record uses one regularly. I'd suggest getting a clip to attach the tube to something vertically stable and leave the last few inches of the tube dangling above the clip. That way you can use it without having to keep it in your mouth with your teeth.
 
I've got one. Its heavy as hell because it is a driver with a tube attached. Its all stuffed into a heavy guage steel box with a bypass switch. I don't think they're all that expensive, but you could easily make one I guess. I don't know how much money you'll save.

It's never happened to me, but apparently you can rattle your fillings out of your teeth. Its a trip having your whole head act as a resonator. It makes me drool. Cool effect though! If you want to hear what my head sounds like when it resonates with 350 watts running into it, check out the beginning of my solo on "Stealing the Words From Someone Else" at...

www.mp3.com/alphadog
 
I have a Digitech RP2000, floor effects with modelling. I think the modeling is better than my J station, it seems to simulate the speaker's "whump" better and have a more dynamic sound; I use clean to moderate distortion. ANYWAY, it has a built in effect that is supposed to kinda emulate a talkbox - it has an XLR mic input and output. You hook the mic in and back out to the mixer, the mic will function as normal, but when you engage the effect (the Talker I think they call it) it modulates what you say or sing or fart into the mic onto the guitar signal. In theory it seems like it could work, I messed with it for a couple of minutes when I first got the thing, it didn't blow me away as a talk box emulator, but there are a few parameters to tweak, and I did'nt spend enough time with it to give it a fair chance. These units have been out a while, you could maybe pick a used one up pretty cheap. Just a thought...
 
All I ever wanted was to sound like Peter Frampton (Do you feel like we Do/Come Alive album).
So I bought a GN-2 with the "talker", hooked my 58 into it and said "That's all right, that's alright, it's right. Good time. We're gonna have agood time".

Oh well. I guess the heil unit is the one for me. :(
 
I have a electro harmonix golden throat 2 . I luv it ,used it on recordings and used a fender bassman 135 head after extreme usage and 5 or 6 years later I finally blew the driver and luckily found a replacement. Imagine a hun or so watts pumpin thru that hose . I almost blew a friend ears off when I showed him how it worked but it was so nasty and ballsy I freakin loved it . Cheers Gag
 
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