Anybody ever built a talkbox?

I took a look at that one myself... that was early on in when I first got into the hobby (Which was not that long ago...) and at first glance from the stuff I did read, sounded like a lot of projects ended up catching fire or smoking someone’s amp... and those horror stories made me rethink wanting to attempt it, but knowing a little more now I would be curious myself to see if someone came up with a well thought out design that wasn’t a disaster waiting to happen.... once again my ADHD gets the best of me.....ohhh something shiny!
 
Jerry Cantrell from AIC used one on some tracks, Man in the Box, Rotten Apple. Of course Frampton......always thought it was a cool effect and would be fun in the studio. I know danelectro had one out for a bit. Never seen a DIY one in my time in the hobby.
 
I made one several years ago out of some old computer speakers, some pvc plumbing parts I had laying around, and air conditioner condensation drain hose. Epoxied the pipe fittings over the computer speaker, ran the hose up to the mic, mic into my cheap PA, then plugged the speaker into the headphone out jack of my practice amp. Surprisingly, It worked… for a little while. But then the little computer speaker gave up the ghost.
 
Drugs are a fundamental of creation

I made a talkbox once but it spoke in a Glaswegian accent nobody had a clue what I was on about

View attachment 16551
My wife and I met a couple from Glasgow while at Hofbrauhaus in Munich nearly a decade ago. Great people who my wife and I ate lunch with and managed to talk to for nearly two hours without understanding 85% of what they were saying. The litres of beer helped bridge the gap, I think 🤣
 
I have a talkbox, but haven’t made one yet. You could easily make a talkbox without any of the amp-destroying risk by simply making it with its own built in solid state amp to drive the speaker you use. The MXR is like that, and it’s a great talkbox. Something like a Noisy Cricket should be enough, but if you’re really concerned about it not being powerful enough, you could get one of those cheap 60-100w power amp units on ebay and rig it up for some talkbox fun.
 
My brother got a the tube and speaker without a cone (which I believe is the main bit) several years ago and hooked it up to a 25 watt solid state amp. He disturb build anything per say but it did work well. I’d second the idea of using a ruby or something like that to power it. The 25 wat amp would literally shake your jaw to the point of being uncomfortable, even at very low volume. You also need a mic to “sing” into otherwise it is a little difficult to hear how it’s working. Or at least it was for me.
 
Back
Top