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RETRO GUITAR EFFECTS: The Sonovox, Grandfather of The Talkbox & Voice of Walt Disney's Train

We’ve all heard the Talkbox, the guitar effect allowing you to sing through your instrument. Peter Frampton is most famous for his “wah wah wah” solo on “Show Me the Way” along with Joe Walsh, Jeff Beck, Bon Jovi and a host of others.

In 1939, more than 35 years before Frampton Comes Alive was released, a steel guitarist named Alvino Rey invented a talking guitar by wiring a pilot’s carbon microphone in reverse (thus becoming a speaker) and placing it on his throat. The sound vibrations of the source material (in this case, his steel guitar) turned his entire noggin into a resonator, allowing him to mouth the words into a microphone.

Here’s Rey in 1944, using the effect offstage to give voice to “Stringy The Talking Guitar” puppet.

Hollywood had used a similar effect called The Sonovox in the 1940’s. Invented by Gilbert Wright in 1939, the Sonovox used small loudspeakers attached to the performer's throat. The effect makes an appearance in the 1940 film You'll Find Out starring Kay Kyser and his orchestra.

The most famous use of the Sonovox was in the voice of Casey Junior the Train from the Walt Disney movie, Dumbo. Hear “I think I can” come out of his stack around the 18 second mark:
And here’s a vintage Disney newsreel showing exactly how the train sounds were made!
All of this just gets me in a DIY spirit. I think I need to create some throat-attached speakers for my own version of the Sonovox! If you’ve ever tried this, send me details for an upcoming article! Email me at shanespeal@yahoo.com.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 5, 2016 at 9:39am

Always liked the Wah talk box effect that Peter Frampton made famous. Everybody forgets about Joe Walsh using it a couple years before on his hit "Rocky Mountain Way" from his first solo album after leaving the James Gang band. I heard that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zepplin tried it out for a song, but decided against it. Glad Framton took it on, but it can be a bit of a one trick pony.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on December 5, 2016 at 10:54am

my babble axe

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on December 5, 2016 at 11:24am

Does it work well? Piezo and a preamp?

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on December 5, 2016 at 6:24pm

yup . it works , mag pup and mini amp (speaker is under the poo-plunger )

tube goes in your cheek . and shaped "words " go through a PA.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on December 7, 2016 at 11:11am

:-D

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Permalink Reply by Rick Alexander on December 5, 2016 at 12:04pm

Alvino is a hell of a player, so is that drummer in the ST.Louis Blues video. That slide solo in the middle was killer.

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Permalink Reply by SweetwaterMike on December 6, 2016 at 4:09pm

Back in the 70's there was a band from below Atlanta called Stillwater did a song called Mind Bender. About a talking guitar who's daddy was a Gibson and it's momma was a Fender

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 6, 2016 at 5:39pm

Here ya go:

https://youtu.be/bt1io_Z2WOQ

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on December 6, 2016 at 8:16pm

I'm sure a large disk in a cup would pickup something used like this

Music stuff sometimes come from strange places, auto-tune was invented by a Exxon engineer to help understand seismic data. Then from the Cher effect the rappers used it and now you got Kayne. Love it or hate it it's on 90% of the music you hear today.