So you've been really wanting to cover that Frampton/Walsh/Perry/Sambora/Slash tune but you can't because you don't have a talk box. It's usually for one of two reasons:

1. Traditional talk boxes are dangerous to hook up to your amp.
2. They cost money.

For me, it was both. I wasn't about to go out and purchase a Heil unit that requires you hook this up to the speaker output of your amplifier. One wrong move or broken switch and there goes the power section of my Atomic Reactor. Also, these units go for as much as $150. To me, that's a lot of money for an effect that will be used only on occasion.

Safer alternatives do exist. The Rocktron Banshee is an amplified unit that is safe to use because it doesn't require hooking into your amp. Still pricy though, at $150, but it gets rave reviews. If you have the money, this is the unit to buy. Danelectro sells an enticing little stomp called the Free Speech for $100. It is completely self contained in that it contains its own mic and gets amplified via your guitar amp. Nice idea, but it is prone to feedback at stage volumes, requiring you to perform feats with the tube and mic that are best left to Linda Lovelace. Besides, are you willing to buy an effect from a manufacturer that insists on naming most products after food items (Fish and Chips? How is that an EQ box?)

So here was my dilemma. I had just spent a good deal of cash on a new guitar that I needed. Now my band mates come to me asking to do a Bon Jovi song that requires a talk box. Bon Jovi? How could I let them down?

So I did a little research into talk boxes. What's inside? Surprisingly, not much. The first talk boxes weren't commercial products. They were homemade, and many still are. The traditional design calls for a length of tubing inserted into a compression horn driver. Put this in a box, add a switch and speaker jack and you're pretty much set, as shown in the diagram below. (Click to enlarge)

The components are pretty darn cheap. An 80 watt compression horn driver from Parts Express goes for $11. Vinyl tubing, switches and jacks aren't that expensive either, let's say $15 for those. Add a box at maybe another $10 and you have ~$35. However, this is for a talk box that connects to the speaker output of your amp. If you wanted to build an amplified version like the Banshee you'd have to include an amp and power supply. This adds more expense. Parts and shipping for what I wanted to build added up to over $100. That's not much of a savings, and I didn't have that kind of cash. So what now?

I looked around my pile of old gear and found something interesting: a 20 year-old mini amp named the Afterburner. It's got a 3" speaker and runs on a 9V battery and it's in a sealed plastic case. And really, with a talk box, sound quality isn't an issue. Hmm...

Self contained...powered...could be powered on my pedal board using a 9V battery adapter...small enough. This was starting to look promising. Maybe I could take the speaker and guts out and mount it in a small box? Nope. The speaker is glued to front of the grill. So maybe I could figure out some way to use the amp as-is? How could I get the speaker to force the air it is pushing out through a 1/2" plastic tube?

The answer turned out to be simpler than I ever thought possible: a plastic funnel, some epoxy gel, and silicone caulk. Add the vinyl tubing and we have everything we need to make a talk box. (Click to enlarge) Note the Digitech Bad Monkey is there to provide some extra overdrive. The amp has its own and it does work good enough, but I wanted to push it over the edge.

So here's the list of materials you will need to make your own relatively cheap talkbox:

• A mini amp. Something with a 2"-3" speaker is perfect. If you don't have one, you can get one like this Dean Markley Micro Amp for about $25.
• 3"-4" plastic funnel. Don't worry if it doesn't fit exactly over the speaker, just as long as it is as large or larger.
• Gel epoxy to glue the funnel onto the amp.
• Clear silicone caulking to seal the funnel.
• 7' of clear vinyl tubing. 1/2" inner diameter, 5/8" outer diameter is perfect.
• Optional - an overdrive or distortion pedal.
• Optional - a box, metal or wood, to house the product in for stage use
• Optional - power and guitar jacks, switch, for stage use

And here are the very simple steps to create your own, cheap talk box:

1. Using a utility knife or hack saw, cut the plastic funnel at the wide end so that it just fits over the speaker of the mini amp.
2. Mix the epoxy and apply to the rim of the funnel.
3. Affix the funnel to the mini amp making sure the rim entirely covers the speaker.
4. While epoxy sets for 5 minutes, cut the vinyl tubing to 7' with a utility knife.
5. Clean the mouth end of the tubing with Listerine mouthwash to kill germs.
6. Use the silicone caulking to seal around the outside edge of the funnel.
7. Attach the vinyl tube to the funnel and run the tube alongside a mic stand. Use rubber bands to affix the tube to the side of the vocal mic, letting about 1-1/2" extend beyond the mic.
8. Plug in guitar, and optionally plug an overdrive stomp in front of the amp.
9. Put tube in mouth, crank up amp, and have a blast.
10. Optionally, construct box to hold talkbox with guitar input/output, switch and power jack.

Now, I'm no talkbox artist, but here are a couple of clips that illustrate both the dry sound and an effected sound for recording. In both cases, I used a Shure SM57 as the vocal mic run into a Line6 TonePort UX2. Sounds good enough for both live and recorded use to me. Note: I used a slightly larger vinyl tube and couldn't get the full range of sounds so I'm going to replace it with the recommended size above.

• Dry talk box sample, SM57, TonePort UX2
• Effected talk box sample, SM57, TonePort UX2, chorus, reverb, delay

Check back, as I will be updating this article as I prepare the talk box to be included on my pedal board for gigging. Have fun building your own!

Karl