The Talk Box rig that Pete also Maunfactured and sold was a horn driver with a Douche bag hose attached.
"I'm just a guitar -- everybody picks on me."
I have an old cassette tape featuring Arthur Smith, Little Roy Wiggins, and Pete Drake
Pete Drake does Color Of The Blues and sings through his steel on it
I have no idea when this was recorded, but seems Pete did something around 1950ish , a song he says I Want My Baby through his steel
My memory may be playing tricks on me here though.
"Forever" received a lot of airplay on pop stations back in the early sixties - 63 or 64 or thereabouts.
I remember listening to it through the earplug on my transistor radio when I was a kid.
Unlike a lot of what I listened to at an impressionable age, I can't say that it inspired me in any particular way (on the other hand, I can't say I've ever forgotten it either!!).
The "Abilene" cut is on the
Starday "Stars of the Steel Guitar" album that has been discussed recently on the Forum.
And on a B movie called the "Road to Nashville" (
terrible movie but lots of footage of people near and dear to our hearts)
there is footage of Pete doing the talking guitar bit. Can't remember what he was doing - maybe the egregious "Abilene".
Like all novelty routines, Pete's talking guitar got old real quick. I'd rather remember Pete for his more serious contributions.
Smiley would be the guy to tell you how the talking guitar bit is done -
his blues number - "I'm Just the Guitar - Everybody's Picking on Me" always brings the house down.
The speakers wre switched off and the horn driver switched in and the hose went in Petes mouth and he mouthed the words into a microphone with the sound being provided by the horn driver thru the hose.
I worked on Pete's talk box rigery crude filters, to kill the lows, and he had to install some v on the output side of a Standel Solid state amp to keep from vibrating the teeth right out of his mouth, sometimes the switching would cause the standel to blow up, taking out the output transistors and speaker, It was a crude setup at best, but it worked for as long as he needed it.
The guys in his band assembled those talk boxes at Petes office on 18th ave.
"Road to Nashville" (terrible movie but lots of footage of people near and dear to our hearts) there is footage of Pete doing the talking guitar bit.
I believe the Movie was called "Nashville Rebel" Had Merle Travis, Minnie Pearl and a young Earl Richards Starring (Del Reeves Front man at the time)
Also the Band with Pete was
Harley Alsup (Bass),
Bob Woods (Guitar)
and
Corky Tittle (Drums)
Those guys in the band were guys I played with in various bands in Key West Florida in my earlier days. Those three guys, Eddie West and Jeff Newman all came to Nashville at about the same time and were in a sit down band together in Key West at Sloppy Joe's Bar.
Ah, The Good Ole Days on a 3 X 5 Mile Island at the tail end of Nowhere
Alvino Rey was the first to do the talking guitar thing, but the device he used was a transducer that was held against the side of his throat. The vibrations from the transducer created the sound in his larinx, which was amplified in his throat and passed onto a regular microphone.
Pete made one record where practically the entire song was sung through the talk box. The words were,
