Danelectro Free Speech Talk Box

Self explanatory. Has a one page pamphlet/user manual which fully explain the IN jack and OUT jacks meaning (whew!). Has tips and suggestions too. Sound gets better with a little mic experimentation, I will elaborate below. Has an insert which clamps tube, mic cord, and fits in a std mic stand clip.

Using stock setup was relatively quiet inline. Using the supplied mic(s) and running into an amp, the unit growled and feeds back at any volume over bedroom levels. In an effects chain, it simply does not work. The driver is a speaker/driver hybrid and pedal housing IS audible by itself at a volume level over 4. Maybe, could double as a practice amp. Thats basically all the bad news. Has tons of gain, but accentuates the hi freqs when turned up. Gain best at 2-4. The good news is when used as a TYPICAL thru the Mic method, its fully functional as an effective Talk box. It is not being driven by a Head, so honestly the FANTASTIC THROATY sound like your favorite recordings is not nailed, but it can be very close. Sound is Mid-rangey with lots of top end. If used with a good vocal mic, the THROATY tone resurfaces. The stock mic's are VERY sensitive and Uni-directional to about 14-18". This is way too sensitive and the problem with the inline amp setup. I got 8+ db signal versus Shure 588 mic alongside it thru mixer. The mics are good enough for vocal response too with good mid and strong highs.

This is not a good LIVE unit. When on it has an 50-70% volume drop when on (Gain up). Overdriven tone was good and had Metal tone not overdrive. I read this may be adjustable via internal trimpots, not sure...When bypassed, a clean signal inline has no significant hiss.

Dont expect any from Dano. More importantly, its UNRETURNABLE at many stores because of the mouth tube.

THIS IS A SERIOUS review, not just just a player who is ticked off at Danelectro's cheesy product line.. So Here we go.. Ok, I got it as a gift and after reading the horror stories previously, its not a total loss as stated by many others. In fact, its a Good piece to record direct with, since it has built in amplification/gain, No A/B box req'd, good battery life (compared to other Danos), and no risk of smoking a amp head.. I run BOTH and Mix between the 2 channels. Stock tube is about 3/8 id. Changed to 5/8 id and sound got worse. Sound is not quite as Powerful as Heil or Supertalker, but those need high power to push them, this is practical and my recordings are good anyhow. I will keep this thing.

Pretty simple to operate. My only complaint is the same as everyone else...the mic's aren't the greatest and you have to get them pretty close to your mouth to get some volume.

I don't experience the feedback problem that many others have. My amp is about 6-8 ft. away from me, and it seems to work well. Again, the mic's kinda suck.

I don't think there will be any problems with it. It's well made, and I'll certainly gig with it.

No problems.....yet.

I play lots of different music, mostly classic rock in my current band. This pedal is great. I think the real trick is to put it in your chain of effects near the beginning. OR, run it separately through your effects loop. I use a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10 combo and it works well so far. A pretty cool pedal for the money. I'd buy another if I needed to. If you buy one, don't get discouraged if you do get feedback or not enough volume. Play with it! It's a toy!! Keep it away from your amp....rule #1!

Pretty easy. Not hard to set up at all just plug and play.

I am running it through a small Marshall solid state amp that I use mostly for practice. Had some noise issues when using the setup as described in the book. The mics on the tube are absolutely useless they feed back too much so I dumped them and use a real mic. I have read lots of complaints about the box not having any volume back through the amp this is true in my case when running the setup as described in the book but I found that using a real mic and plugging the mic strait into the amp and not into the back of the talk box makes a huge difference it will scream.. Basicly I plug my guitar into the talk box, dont plug the box into the amp. Plug the mic strait into the amp then the volume and white noise issues are history. You can make it as loud as you like, but doing this you need a small amp just for the talk box and maybe an A/B switch for switching between your main amp and your amp with the talk box. I mainly just practice with it and havent compaired it with others such as Heil, Rocktron, and others on the market.. If you set it up right you can get some pretty decent sounds out of this little unit.

So far so good. No problems. I would just recommend and external power source rather than batteries it will eat them alive unless you have plenty of money and dont mind buying batteries everyday.

Never had to use them so I dont know...

I play mostly Rock and Blues. Some country but not much.
If it were stolen I would buy another one but maybe I would try another brand just to compare the difference.
I just wish sombody still made one of the old bag talkboxes that you could just through over your shoulder and walk around with..
In all if you set it up the right way it will work fine. The setup in the book aint worth crap im my opinion but what sounds good to me might sound like crap to someone else..

Plug'er in and stick the tube in your mouth!!! Let's you sound like Frampton, Joe Perry, Joe Walsh or Charlie Brown's teacher!

I got a pretty good sound out of it right away. Of course the first time I tried it I had a cough drop in my mouth and about gagged between that and the tube. It WILL feedback! Read the other tips and tricks here and you can avoid it. Number 1, don't place it right in front of your amp.

It's heavy, it's metal, it's got a groooovy paint scheme. It'll eat batteries, get an AC adaptor

Their website went suddenly...........useless. Maybe they're doing a little upgrading.

This is basically a cool toy for me. Having worn out several copies of "Frampton Comes Alive", I'm a sucker for a talk box. Here's something stupid, I got the same feedback that everyone's talked about. I took the tube out of my mic stand and flipped it over, so the tube was pointing down, instead of up, and I swear about 50% of the feedback stopped, no kidding. I really think the trick is to only turn it on when it's over your mouth. "Waaaaa wahhhhh..wahhhhhh..."

I have no idea what any one is talking oboute it is really easy to use it just takes alittle time.

The sound is realy good. but their are alittle feedback problems but if you use alittle comoncents you should be fine

it is reliable and I take it to gigs all the time all you have to do is figuar out how to controle it

the customer support does suck and the manual they give you realy wont help you

I play everything you can think of and have ben playing for aboute five years I have compared it to the dulop and I think the danelectro is easer to use and much more user friendly and has just as good of a sound I am a ferm belever that the machine is only as good as the guitarest on the other side of the pedal.so just keep playing and finding out what you can do with it.

the main problem i have with this pedal is the fact that no matter how much i try and what i use i have trouble with feedback, and god dont it feedback. I have bought the Boss EQ-20, to try to get rid of it but still it aint that easy. If you have any ideas let me know

i dont like the fact that you have to rely on the pedal to generate the gain. It sounds too processed and gay. i would like more if you had your own gain / distortion pedal to put through it, you might have better luck with the feedback to.

dont know, i aint had it long

as most of you said, it's pretty easy to use it. it needs a lot of practice and perseverance before you can get anything decent to come out of it. I think there should be more information in the manual and their website needs some info on it.

i use a les paul copy and a korgAX1500 multi fx box with it. it's usefull because it has a volume pedal to help stop all the feedback you get from this. you can bearly hear anything if its on clean but when you switch to a nice heavy sound you can hear it perfect. The mics that come with it are really baaaad, i tried out a few mics iv got lying about the house, i found a headset and tried that, it's most usefull because you can put the mic close to your mouth and it'll stay there so you can get a better sound out of it. i get a hum from it for some reason... my advise if you're gunna get one of these is to get a different mic.

it's really quite hard to set up if you dont want lots and lots of feedback. other wise it's pretty sturdy i think.

I've been playing now about 4 years. i play in a classic rock band. i like most sorts of music, i discovered the sound first when i started listening to bon jovi stuff when i was younger. my dad introduced me to peter frampton, some sweet stuff of his. I wish it had BETTER MICS! i think if you've got alot of time on your hands you might as well try it out, but it's deffinately not a must-have thing.

Pretty good sound out of it. I didnt have a problem to much, just mind where your guitar is set up according to the amp. This will avoid the feedback problem that everyones having. Wordked fine live for me. The manual isent to good its like one page the size of your hand or so. REALLY small. But what is there to say? you just plug it in and your on your way. One thing. The led is Misleading. You may want to buy an adaptor with it. Dispite what they say, you do not need a special Danelectro adaptor that cost like $86,518 just go buy a cheepie from wal mart that is adjustable. Its all good. Even if the led is bring, it may have low batteries, and it wont pump out the juice you want.. Couldent find the internal gain.. Dosent matter, i didnt really neeed it i was just curious so 9/10 because of the LED

Im a bassist. Yes on a talkbox. (Yamaha RBX 6JM John Myung 6 String Signature Bass) Works fine, no problems. I have a crap 15 watt amp but ive tried it out on a 160 live and it works fine. very good. GFreat it a band setting.The effects are allways good AS LONG AS the batteries are full, hence get an adaptor. Sounds good with anything really, I like to use it as the first pedel in my line of pedels. If not, it sounds really mucky. Its like playing a riff on the low b too fast for your talent. As long as its first your fine.. I dont find that adding effects are any advantage, some things (aka synth).. wait lets not go there. Id like to keep this review clean :P Wah? the 2 sounds wierd together. Kinda like just having 2 wahs a bit. A little dist if you want but the pedel itself has a nice dist so id say just go clean with the Talkbox. Just expirament yourself (Being a big Dream Theater buff, it can copy Burning My Soul perfectly)

Cummon, its like cast iron steel. The mics? meh their ok but you know it lasts if you take care of it.

Never had a problem.

I play progressive rock and this works great its such a load of fun. It can work as a small practice amp too if you wanted because it hisses like nothing else. Also its fun to not bother with your amp just hoock up the pedel to the amp and talk away. Quite a load of fun. Ive been playing for 3 years. I have the 6 string bass (RBX6JM), A 4 string dean bass, getting a new 60 watt amp next month. Also hax a zoom bfx 708 effect pedel

Fairly easy to use, the talk box has a volume function and a distortion level. The tube and mic that controll the sound that is relected around the shape of your moth is relatively easy to use but takesd practice.

Right, where can i start? This pedal is useless for anything other than mincing around at home on! I have some nice equipment, a fender and a 60w full valve mashall but this pedal insists on screaming like a bitch! There's no chance of ever using this effectively on anything other than clean settings because unless you have an extemely powerfull P.A system to run your amp through, there's no chance of gettin any volume abouve volume 2 because you can't hear through the feed back.

it seems like i sturdy enough pedal and the tube that connects to your mouth seems fairly industrial but i wouldn't take it anywhere so its not worth relying on.

n/a

I'm your average funky monk and being such, i invested in this pedal to try and create some unique and interesting effects. My diagnosis for this pedal is that it it is a lazy man's wah/ phaser. Really, don't buy it, even if you think i don't know what i'm on, at least try it out before you buy it. think of the children.

Easy to play in a 'bedroom' evirmonment, really hard to get a good set up live.

The actual sound that the pedal produces is great. However, try and use it live and you wont get to the sound because of the feed back. I play in a rock indie type band and wanted an effect that I've never seen anyone else use. This appeared to be just the thing but but I have not been able to use it live. I tried a low volume setting but obviously there's a huge difference in sound when I switch it on. Tried 'EQing' the crap out of this thing and I suppose it worked but all you can do is take off all the top and mid range stuff and boost the bottom end. This sounds crap. However I used in the studio and dubbed it over a song we recorded, this worked quite nicely.

Seem pretty sturdy, I knack most pedals with my size 9's but this is pretty robust. Dont use it live ergo no need for back up.

Never dealt with 'em.

Depends what yo are looking for really. If you want to pretend to be Sambora in your bedroom, or only want it for recording purposes then this is your pedal.

If you want something for a live set up then you need to look elsewhere. It didnt do quite what I wanted but somehow I'm not sorry I bought it.