HAve you heard this story about Peter Drake?

Todd Pertll · Post by **Todd Pertll** » 2 Nov 2005 5:57 am

I was palying a show last night and I got to talking to the headliners guitar tech about pedal steel. (Which is probably another topic all to itself.) But, he was telling me how he teched for Peter Frampton for years. And Peter told him that he got the idea for the talk box from Peter Drake during the "All Things Must Pass" sessions. Has anyone else ever heard this story. I have no reason to doubt him, but it just sounded odd.

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 2 Nov 2005 6:06 am

I heard it from Pete...

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Gary Spaeth · Post by **Gary Spaeth** » 2 Nov 2005 6:11 am

didn't pete get it from buddy emmons?

pdl20 · Post by **pdl20** » 2 Nov 2005 8:29 am

I think Bill West done it first and he and Pete were good friends at that time.As told by Dottie

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 2 Nov 2005 8:35 am

Alvino Rey was doing it in 1938 or 1939.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 2 Nov 2005 8:48 am

Ah yes, the old tried and true "speaker-in-a-coffee-can-with-a-rubber-hose" trick.

Bobbe could probably tell us more, but Pete Drake was the first one to make it really popular (although I heard he got the coffee-can idea from Shot Jackson). I don't think Alvino employed this method, but he was the first with a "talking guitar", to my knowledge.[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 02 November 2005 at 08:49 AM.]

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 2 Nov 2005 8:56 am

I remember seeing Alvino Rey use that effect on the old 'King Family' variety show -- must have been late 50's, so Earnest probably has the right answer.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> It was during this time that Rey developed his "singing guitar" trademark.

"The name sort of fit us," Rey said. "The talking guitar bit was more of a style, too. We tried to build all our music around the guitar. As you would hear the band on the air, you'd also hear the guitar. Then we'd get carried away with jazz and forget about the guitar. The band was made up of such fine musicians that sometimes we'd get a little too far out and loud for the customers."

For the band's opening theme, Rey employed a weird but successful effect that sounded like electronic voices.

"We had some microphones that were the opposite of throat microphones," Rey described. "It was like a loud speaker unit fastened to your throat. The guitar would play musically into it and the voice, usually done by my wife, Luise, would mouth the words and it would come out with an eerie effect almost like an alien."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
http://www.jazzconnectionmag.com/alvino_rey_article_may_2000.htm

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Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 2 Nov 2005 10:38 am

Alvino Rey ?? I didn't know that! Good bit of info! Thanks.

I always thought it was Smiley Roberts.

Maybe he's the only guy who still uses it.

Lee Gillespie · Post by **Lee Gillespie** » 2 Nov 2005 12:18 pm

Was talking to a picker friend of mine, Bobby Tyrer last week end about the voice box. (now this is before I read this thread)
The story he told me was.... he and Bill West were jammin at Bills place, when Bill complained he could'nt hear the high notes to well. Bobby seen this driver settin to the side, so he duck taped a garden hose to the end of it and stuck the hose up by Bill's ear. Bill then stuck the hose in his mouth and WA LA...it went from there. LEE

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 2 Nov 2005 12:22 pm

I remember the big hit "Forever" by Pete Drake, I always thought he invented it.

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Terry Wood · Post by **Terry Wood** » 2 Nov 2005 12:24 pm

Facts are this, Buddy is top-flight always regardless, Alvino did use something similiar years prior, but nobody perfected the "Talking Steel Guitar or capitalized on it to the bank like Pete Drake. I like to listen to Pete's stuff. Technically it may not blow you away but the arrangements, artistry and his sounds come through and they worked.

Terry J. Wood

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 2 Nov 2005 11:09 pm

I remember seeing a demonstration of Alvino's system in the 50s. Backstage, they had small speakers the size of headphone earpieces. They place them on each side of the larynx on a person in front of a mike who would mouth the words of the song. Pete Drake's system was totally different using a length of medical hose attached to the hole of a speaker driver and the other end in the side of his mouth. Drake did both parts, where Alvino relied on an additional person to get the same effect.

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 3 Nov 2005 4:10 am

Roy Smeck and Nick Manilof, were doing it in the thirties, of course Alvino Rey was the first to make it well known with a steel.

The old "Bromo Seltzer" radio commercials were extremely well known for using this effect in the thirties and forties using a recorded steam locomotive sound piped into a mouth to form the words "Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer". But I doubt if many of you are old enough to remember this popular radio ad. How about it, anyone remember this ad and effect????

Bill Beall · Post by **Bill Beall** » 3 Nov 2005 4:52 am

Yeah, Bobbe, I'm afraid I do. Now, quit telling off on OUR ages.

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 3 Nov 2005 6:48 am

I remember the Bromo-Seltzer ads too.
I think the system they and Alvino Rey used was called a "sonovox."

Blake

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 3 Nov 2005 7:26 am

That old and you still have a memory! I'm proud of you guys!

Bobbster,

Ted Solesky · Post by **Ted Solesky** » 3 Nov 2005 8:53 am

Jeff told me, at one of his teaching concerts, that he played steel on some of those songs like, 'Are you sincere' and Pete lipped it.
I had one of those units, built by a good friend in Hanover, Pa, years ago, and it was an ear catcher. The people liked the novelty. I loaned the unit out to someone and never got it back.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 3 Nov 2005 9:23 am

*

[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 05 November 2005 at 11:30 AM.]

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 3 Nov 2005 10:14 am

Hey thanks! I used to hear those ads and wondered how they did that. I mean my grandmother heard them and told me about it. Before my time, of course.

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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum SD12U, Carter D10 8/8, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3, DD-3, Fender Steel King, Understanding wife. http://www.Charmedmusic.com

Joe Shelby · Post by **Joe Shelby** » 3 Nov 2005 3:18 pm

Just a couple of unrelated facts, FWIW...
On Buddy's "Four Wheel Drive/Steel Guitar Jazz" compilation album, he talks about he
and Shot being at a session trying unsuccessfully to make the talking effect work, and adds that Pete was present at the
session.
Joe Walsh, probably the first prominent guitarist in rock to use the effect (correct
me if I'm wrong), got the idea from Bill West.
The Cherokee Cowboys album ("Western Strings"
one of the finest backup band albums ever made, features Buddy doing the talking effect behind Wade Ray on "Burnt Fingers.").

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 3 Nov 2005 6:12 pm

Yes, I have that album, I think this was about the last time this was ever done, the first time was about forty years before this.
I wouldn't call it a steel guitar playing trick, more of an accoustical gimmick.

But then, I might call it Johnny, or maybe John, but ya' doesn't have ta' call it Ray, but then---------->

Come to think of it, this might be the oldest trick effect ever done. It's not much newer than electricity itself.
Yep, I think little Tommy Edison and Alexander G. Bell came up with the first unit, I thought the rubber hose was a new kind of smoking aperatus. [This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 03 November 2005 at 06:19 PM.]

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 3 Nov 2005 6:53 pm

I read in the history books that King Imhotep III of Egypt used it occasionally to fool his servants. He used an old toilet paper tube with some parchment streched over it. Old Hep really gotta kick outta watching his servants scurry at the sound. Seems to me there was a hyroglyphic of it somewhere on a pyramid.[This message was edited by Kevin Hatton on 03 November 2005 at 06:55 PM.]

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 3 Nov 2005 8:05 pm

I saw the guitar player in (Forum steeler) Dan Tyack's band use one very well. It was a real crowd pleaser.

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Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 4 Nov 2005 5:40 am

I remember seeing John Kay, from Steppenwolf, using one way before Joe Walsh---but then again, I built one myself when I was about twelve or thirteen---Read an article in "Hit Parader" about Link Wray, I think...

Emmett Roch · Post by **Emmett Roch** » 4 Nov 2005 7:31 am

I remember that, Stephen. I saw John Kay on some TV show singing "I'm Movin' On", and during is guitar solo he had a plastic tube in his mouth, the other end of which was in a fringed suede bag at his waist.