While the talk show box achieved its greatest popularity in the early part of the ’70s thanks to Bob Hill, the concept existed in a variety of forms long before its device came to market.
The effect was first popularized, if not invented, by Alvino Ray, in the late 1930s, using a throat contact microphone to make his steel guitar speak. Ray connects the microphone in reverse to act as a speaker and feeds the amplified signal to him. During his performance, his wife, Louise, stood offstage, wearing the instrument and uttering the words to the song while Ray’s steel guitar tones emerged from her lips.
It was the same concept behind Sonovox, developed by Gilbert Wright in 1939 and demonstrated by a young Lucille Ball in Newsletter.
A little bit of his belly speech was used as the voice of Stringy the Talking Steel Guitar, a strange-looking doll who sang “St. Louis Blues” in the 1944 film Impromptu loud concert.
The talk box As we know it today, Nashville steel guitarist Bill West created it by sealing an eight-inch tweeter into a box, from which a length of tube extends to the player’s mouth. Steel guitarist Pete Drake put West’s instrument down to use in his 1964 story “Forever,” and Grandma quickly caught on.
Drake began selling the device himself, marketing it as the modern music player. West’s speaking box eventually found its way onto the stage of Joe Walsh, which he continued to use in his 1973 song, “Rocky Mountain Way,” the first record most people had heard of in the era of classic rock.
By that time, Kustom Electronics was in the business with the bag, a shoulder strap introduced in 1969 and used by Joe Perry on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” in 1975 and by Jeff Beck that same year in “It’s a woman” from blow by blow.
But all these devices were relatively low. It took high strength Heil talk box To make the effect workable for use on the stadium and arena stages. He and Walsh made the prototype together on Sunday afternoon.
“We got a 250W JBL, built a low-pass filter, got all the plumbing together, and voila – the tokbox,” Hale recalls.
Enter Peter Frampton, who first heard the effect when he played Drake in Sessions George Harrison All things must pass The album was also performed by Frampton.
Frampton – who has known Hill since his days as a Humble Pie soundtrack – used his Talk Box in 1975’s “Show Me the Way” but made his biggest impression on him in “Do you feel like we doFrom his 1976 live album, Frampton Alive!
“People went crazy when I went to use the talking box,” he said. Guitar player. “Hey, everyone needs a gimmick, and that was mine.”
It has since become a useful tool in the mouths of guitarists from Ritchie Sambora to Jerry Cantrell.
Check out the MXR M222 Talk Box here.
