Talk Box Questions

[jps000jps]

Hello, I am new to this forum, and new to talk boxes. I plan on building one, and I want to know if It can be used on a 10W practice amp, because many sites say you need two amps if you plan on switching between regular play and talk box mode. If i can use it with my amp, do I have to drill a hole and install a jack for it to go into, or can I put it in a "CD In" or "Phones" jack that my amp has.

[Mark Hammer]

Talkboxes use the resonant properties of your mouth to produce the sound/tone. What you "shoot" into your mouth via the tube has to be loud enough that there is still something for a microphone to pick up while that sound is bouncing around inside your cheeks.

While your 10wamp may be suitable to provide the sound that goes into your mouth, it cannot be the amp that feeds your mouth tube and the amp that that reproduces with the mic picks up at the same time. You would need 2 amps to do that.

[jps000jps]

Oh...

Oh okay thanks, I thought I could send the signal back through the amp sort of like a circle.. but the talk box can go into the phones jack on my amp right? Or do I have to make one for it to go into?

[Mark Hammer]

You have to think of the talkbox and your guitar as being an entire instrument. So, whatever you would need to do for you guitar, you would need to do for the talkbox. If the sound going up the tube comes from your amp, then you need an entirely different amp to sense that and make it louder.

Having said that, it is possible to use a small battery-powered amp to "feed the tube" and then run the mic that picks up the sound from your mouth to your guitar amp, where you could switch back and forth from your guitar's direct feed to the amp to the mic's feed to the amp.

Alternatively, you may simply find it easier and cheaper and more reliable to buy an EHX Iron Lung vocoder pedal when they hit your neighbourhood. Electro-Harmonix Iron Lung Vocoder

[jps000jps]

Re

Well I am using a compression driver to run the sound directed up the tube. I was going to connect the guitar to the amp, and using a TRS cable (a guitar cable but stereo instead of mono) to run from the phones output into the compression driver using a 1/4" stereo jack wired up to the driver, then emit the noise from the guitar through the tube, and I have a different sound system for a mic. Just like this picture I found, except with a guitar.

Would this work?

[Mark Hammer]

Assuming the mic goes to a separate amplifier (sound system), yes.