I Invented The Talkbox
Name : Doug Forbes
Occupation : Director of Music Technology / Professor in Computer Science and
Electronics at College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA.
Hobbies : Inventing weird sound devices
Known for : Inventing the first talkbox
 
 
His invention
 
“The Bag”, 1969
as manufactured by Kustom
 
 
 
Doug Forbes Links
 
“Yes I am the one who developed the talkbox as used by Frampton, Walsh et al.”
 
 a 100-watt JBL and it lasted longer but still seemed we had to replace the voice coil assembly pretty often. Then we got this "manager" and he saw us using this thing so he tried to rip it off by attempting to sell the idea to Kustom. Kustom wasn't buying that he had invented it and had the rights to sell it so he came to me and said he had a buyer and would I spit with him if he told me whom it was. I had already had dealings like this with Fender and knew that the thing was already patented as an artificial larynx. There would be all sorts of conflicts and legal stuff so I said no. He pushed on it with them and they eventually came out with what they called "The Bag". As far as I know it didn't sell real well and the dude that ripped it off didn't get a cent. I still have the prototype in a marvelous green sofa material with even more marvelous gold fringe.”
 
Doug forbes, inventor of the talkbox
“Back in 1963, I was working in an electronics shop while in junior high school and also playing in a psychedelic sort of band. I made all sorts of weird boxes to try to get strange sounds from the lead players' guitar. One day an old guy came into the shop with an artificial larynx of the kind that consisted of a little cylinder like a tuna tin with a plastic tube coming out of the top that he had in the corner of his mouth. There was a little button on the side that made the thing buzz into his mouth when he pressed it. I was freaked. I had never seen anything like that. I knew that the buzzing had to be replaced by a fuzz guitar sound so I went home, took apart a PA speaker my dad had rigged up for hi-fi on the patio and connected a piece of hose to the driver. I brought the contraption to our next band rehearsal and we replaced the lead players' bandmaster speakers with the PA thing and played it as loud as it would go. It didn't last too long before the driver was fried. The next driver was the largest they made