"Golden Throat" talk box from the golden age

Scott from Electro-Harmonix doesn't just blog about their newer FX boxes. He also digs up videos of old products that EHX no longer makes like the "Golden Throat" talk box, a box that sounds like a vocoder, but wasn't, as it "physically pumped audio (not an electric signanl) up a tube, into the player's mouth, to then be shaped and captured via an external microphone."

Bad ass. (Several versions were released.)

Roger Troutman's group Zapp famously used a Golden Throat for the lead vocal line of "California Love", which was remade in 1995 by 2Pac and Dr. Dre with Troutman rerecording the vocals. "California Love" was itself a remake of sorts, with the foundation lick being lifted whole cloth from Joe Cocker's 1972 track "Woman to Woman". [Sample below.]

In the above video, a cornball French dude named "Mo' Cheeze" puts the Golden Throat off to hilariously right-on effect. (Fun experiment: Close your eyes, pretend you're listening to a track from the early '90s, then open your eyes to gaze on the smooze leer of Mssr. Cheeze.)

Other "Golden Throats" that are not this thing: throat lozenge; RCA Victrola

Related • The History of the Robot Voice from Kraftwerk to Kanye [Gearcrave]

[#1 posted by dculberson , January 21, 2009 11:09 AM]

Mssr. Cheeze is So Ruff, So Tuff!

[#2 posted by timquinn , January 21, 2009 1:16 PM]

'scuse me for being, um, old, but isn't this the thing Peter Frampton used in his big hits back in the 70s? Played his guitar through it.

I am not going to think about this hard enough to actually remember one. It would end up haunting my brain for days.

[#3 posted by Anonymous , January 21, 2009 2:19 PM]

Yeah, Peter Frampton used it ("Do You Fell Like We Do") and also Joe Walsh if I can remember. But even earlier, Pete Drake in the early 60's used a talkbox on his steel guitar ("Forever"), and yet even earlier, back in the early 40's, people like Alvino Rey - among others - used the "Sonovox" which was roughly based on the same principle. Hope I helped gather your memories ;-)

[#4 posted by Chris Brewer , January 21, 2009 4:52 PM]

David Gilmour used it on at least two Pink Floyd tracks - Pigs (Three Different Ones) from Animals and Keep Talking from The Division Bell.

[#5 posted by Dungeonbrownies , January 22, 2009 1:22 AM]

yea, ive been looking up stuff and plan on building a small, weak home made talk box.

apparently its so easy most people can.

[#6 posted by Anonymous , January 22, 2009 4:56 AM]

Yeah. And it's so easy you can even build a really powerful one and it'll be less hassle than trying to build those crapy "ghetto talkboxes". The reward is worth the effort. Truly.