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Talkbox on bass

#2
I thought Larry Graham's "Do you wanna dance" features some nice funky talkbox on bass.

you won't blow the speakers.
in the worst case, you'll blow the amp, but not the speakers.
if you hit the button on the talkbox, there will be a switching of the cabinet to the talkbox.
the talkbox is NOT plugged between bass and amp, its plugged between Amp and Cabinet.
IMO, dont use a tube amp, I heard some baaaad stories!

ah, and yes, you'll need plenty of fuzz or distortion to make your bass heard through the talkbox.
 
#4
I had an Electro Harmonix Golden Throat back in the day. Somebody wanted to play with it so I set it up and told them not to touch the volume on the amp. Go back later, see volume on "10", find box blowed up, still looking for the former friend 30 years later for good old fashoined beat-down. :mad:
 
#5
Rocktron banshee also works, but I hear that Rocktron is crap. Just what I hear...


And one guy said that due to the laws of physics won't work on bass, but I've seen it work before when Godsmack was doing a little ditty before a song, their bassist was using a talkbox and got a real synthy deep sound, which sounds a lot like Godsmack.
 
#6
Lowpro said:
Rocktron banshee also works, but I hear that Rocktron is crap. Just what I hear...


And one guy said that due to the laws of physics won't work on bass, but I've seen it work before when Godsmack was doing a little ditty before a song, their bassist was using a talkbox and got a real synthy deep sound, which sounds a lot like Godsmack.
Click to expand...

I wonder if all it might take is a larger diameter tube and really big mouth :) Or is the frequency bottleneck the horn driver itself?
 
#7
Lowpro said:
Rocktron banshee also works, but I hear that Rocktron is crap. Just what I hear...
Click to expand...

My guitarist friend uses the rocktron. It doesn't sound bad, but I haven't compared it to other talkbox effects.

I could see why it wouldn't work AS WELL on bass as guitar with the lower frequencies... but then again, Bon Jovi does it, and I have never heard anyone complain about the effect on the bass in "It's my life"... ever wonder what was making that "Bow Wow" sound? I believe their bass player uses it in a few other songs as well.
 
#9
Sir Edward V said:
Oh yeah, talkbox effects NOT between amp and speaker:
RockTron Banshee (as already mentioned)
Dan Electro Free Speech

check out this video I just found, its fricken sweet:
Click to expand...


Also Electro-Harmonix Golden Throat Deluxe, but that one's even more rare than the regular Golden Throat.

Any small practice amp could be used as well, provided you had a speaker jack or access to the speaker wires, which is not always so with small bass combos.
 
#10
sonicvi said:
Also Electro-Harmonix Golden Throat Deluxe, but that one's even more rare than the regular Golden Throat.

Any small practice amp could be used as well, provided you had a speaker jack or access to the speaker wires, which is not always so with small bass combos.
Click to expand...

check the edit :D that website I listed has the golden throat series, dunlop heil box, the one made by framptone, etc.
 
#11
lug said:
I had an Electro Harmonix Golden Throat back in the day. Somebody wanted to play with it so I set it up and told them not to touch the volume on the amp. Go back later, see volume on "10", find box blowed up, still looking for the former friend 30 years later for good old fashoined beat-down. :mad:
Click to expand...

I had the chance to play around with a Golden Throat a couple years back. I thought that thing was AWESOME! Good luck finding your former friend. I'll hold him for you if I'm around. :D

Also, IME, talkbox effects seem to work best through bass rigs that are set up for bi-amping. Sending the high frequencies through the TB and into one amp while having the lows sent to a clean amp gives you the best of both worlds. You'll get the talkbox effect and good, clear low end. I'd be willing to bet that Hugh from Bon Jovi uses this type of rig.

EDIT: In the past, people have commented that they have gotten great results from the old Digitech Talker. Just food for thought..............
 
#16
I have a Dean Markley Talk Box 100 from way back in the day similar to the original Heil Talkboxes. If you find one of those old honeys you will not wanna power it with a current bass amp way too much power and you will blow the horn driver.
I run mine as a seperate amp and I power mine with a GK MLS 100 watt guitar head and it sounds pretty cool especially mixed with a bit of direct bass.
Stanley Clarke and Bootsy Collins have also used a Talk box with their bass as well as Zapp on synth bass keyboards.
 
#17
Saw a sweet funk band from Australia called 'Goose' play a few years back. Big horn band and big rhythm section - 2 guitarist, bass, drums percussion, keys, etc.

for 1 song, one of the guitarists pulled out an old 70s stingray and played like a badarse then starts using a Talkbox! sounded so fat and growly - distortion and talkbox.

A friend of mine bought a Invalid Link Removed but i haven't had a chance to check it out. Because its a digital vocoder you don't need an extra amp to use it. Its discontinued though.

there's a pretty funny demonstration here
 
#18
I just saw Stevie Wonder live last week in Detroit (5th row center :D ), and he hooked up a talkbox to his synth and did a rap about how he loved growing up in Detroit. My point...I'd only heard the talkbox with the Peter Frampton talking thing before. Stevie got a wild two-hand tapping thing going while doing pretty much an extended wah with his voice. So cool!!!!!!!! It occurred to me that these talkbox things could be *very* fun to play with.
 

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