Rocktron Banshee

Pretty easy to get a good sound. It takes some practice to actually make it "talk", but I think that is just the same with all talk boxes. The manual is pretty simple and connection is a breeze.

I am using a custom Togaman GuitarViol (www.bowedguitar.com) through Banshee>>Boss Tuner>> Digitech Expression Pedal>>Digitech Bad Monkey>>Boss DD-3 Delay>>Boss Super Chorus>>Boss Pitch Shifter all to a Yamaha T-50 amp with 2-12 cabinet. The sound I get is very classic. I love that Frampton sound. It is easy to manipulate the sound with the tone and gain knobs. I am starting to try it with the bow and it is something else. This is a great effect and attention getter.

Looks pretty reliable. It's pretty heavy and look to be built to be gigged with. I wouldn't bring a back up unless I was using this effect as a main part of my sound.

Have never dealt with them.

I play anything from rock, blues, jazz, latin, new age, classical etc.. (www.deuxguitarviols.com) This is a great effect and I hope to shine some new light on with our music. I will be using this mostly as a gimmick. I own a lot of gear and I know what work and what doesn't. This is a great piece of gear because it doesn't damage your equipment like all other talk boxes out there. I recomend anyone who is interested in a talk box to check out the banshee. I also advise anyone who does buy it to make sure you clean out the tube every time you use it. You wouldn't want anything to crawl up that tube into your mouth!!

So simple. I took it out of the box, stuck the tube in it, and hooked my guitar up. Didn't even need mic, just used the tube as my amplifier. Plenty loud!

The sound is perfect to my ears. Exactly like Walsh, which is what I was going for. I've heard it can rattle your teeth, but I don't seem to have that problem, and I've had it up pretty loud. It is a strange feeling though, having all that sound in your mouth! I use it with my SM58 and it sounds great. I have two problems with it though. One is the size of the tube. It's like sticking a garden hose in your mouth! I wish they sent an optional thinner tube! Also, getting it velcroed at just the right position on your mic stand is tricky. You don't want to tape it to the mic unless you want it there the entire gig - poking you in the face as you try to sing!!

It's heavy duty. And just plain heavy! It feels like it's built for heavy use and will last a long time. I've only had it for a couple of months, so time will tell.

I have to use it without a backup, because I don't want to buy two of them!

Never tried them yet.

I play Classic Rock, using a Fender American Deluxe Strat and Nashville Tele, among other things from time to time. We actually dumped our amps and go directly into the mixer board now. Small sacrifice to my sound, but major advantage in that I don't have to haul a heavy amp anymore! Anyway, this works perfectly for Walsh's Rocky Mt Way and his Eagle stuff as well.

If it were stolen, then I hope the SOB gets sick from whatever germs are crawling around inside the tube!! Yes, I'd buy another one.

Again, I wish Rocktron gave you a choice of a thinner tube.

Basically a plug and play unit & fairly simple to use .manual is ok,not much to it .Just make sure you do your research before buying and it's what your looking for.You can't return it once you use it for health reasons ,nobody wants it back after you slobbered on the tube .break the factory seal it's yours .

I bought this as an alternative to my Heil talk box .The selling point for me was that it has an internal amp and doesn't need to be hooked up to your speaker outputs like a heil box.It hooks up to the front of your amp just like a stomp box would .I use it with a line 6 AX2 .It sounds pretty good .It's loud and powerful ,it can really rattle your head if you set the output too high .It would be nice if it had a clean setting .Distortion is the only sound it does ,which is fine as most popular talk box tunes used dirty sounds .

only had it a few months so I don't know of it's reliability .it seems pretty solid .rocktron has a good reputation for quality products .Time will tell .

I emailed them with questions before I purchased one .They were quick to reply and very helpful .

Been playing for 30yrs .I play classic rock and country and only use it on a few tunes .it suits my needs fine .you'll have no problem pulling off all the popular classic talk box tunes with this .again more 'tweakability'(is that a word?)would have been nice, but it's a decent piece and has a quality sound for the money .The plug and play aspect was the selling point for me .

Super easy to set up. Don't try to run through your amp though or have your amp running at the same time because it defeats the purpose of this effect.

I took a chance based on reviews (which I am a sucker for and have regretted more than once) but this is the balls. I seldom use it but it is a great attention getter and it truely nails Walsh Frampton, whoever. I use a SM-57 with a littel verb. Getting used to the amp shutting off is a little strange but as long as the monitors are up and the soundman doesn't over do it and get feedback (you know who you are!)it's fine.

No problems

This is a very good deal at a fair price and if you want to spend more to achive what may be better go for it, but I can't see the need to waste money. This unit will not fry your amp and sounds fantastic. Great job Rocktron!

luckily, it's plug and play, but the manual is as anorexic, as it gets. why don't manufacture's write and include proper manuals, shame on them all.

i'm using a 1995 usa strat, plugged straight into the rocktron's guitar imput, (no other effects needed) and i've got a marshall stack, from the rocktron's amp output. the rocktron has it's own built-in amp, and on it's own, is loud enough to deafen a person with extended exsposure, given the closeness of a human's ears to his mouth. it's easy to tweak-it, so that you can get the same sound levels between the talk-box and your guitar amp. (although you don't need to have an amp to play it) but if you want to switch from talk box mode to normal guitar mode, you'll need an amp) but initally to get great sounds, all you need is, the rocktron, a guitar, a guitar lead, and a power point, and your sounding like richie, himself. i got the richie thing happening straight away, and those famous fantastic lead/lick/riff sections from the queen songs sound magical, when played through the talk box, although brian didn't use a talk box, i breathed some new life into those old queen songs. the main thing to do is, is to experiement, not everything will sound good, but you'll discover what does and what doesn't, and you'll get the hang of it quickly. i hope this information helps, i would encourage anyone that were considering buying the roctron, to buy it, you wont be disappointed, it requires no skill, if you can breath, you can work this thing out.

it's real heavy, and larger than i thought, (i bought it of the web, without first seeing it, because of all the good reviews i'd read here) i'd use it without a back-up, but things do break.

i play clasical nylon string alot, but when i rock out "these days" (speak of the devil) i do bonjovi, queen, ac/dc, etc, and lots of punk rock, funk rock, glam rock, & power pop. i've been playing for 24 years, and have heaps of everything, (greedy-me). if the rocktron was stolen, i'd hunt the thief down, but his siliva would be all over it, so i wouldn't want it back. i'd proably try feeding my harmnica some steroids, and if that did work, i'd buy another one.
i compared the roctron to all the other ones, and choose it because of the reviews i read here, and else where. i wish the rocktron didn't have the power input, on the side, wish it were on the front, also, i hate they fact that it's a 9 volt 2 amp power unit.

- A box and a tube
- Guitar in
- Amp out (connects the bypassed signal to your guitar amp)
- Speaker out (for using the Banshee like an amp head)
- Adaptor in
- Gain, Tone, Volume knobs

Plug and play !

The tube is the weakest link in this unit :
It really should come from the factory with a piece that would fit on the upper end and make the connexion between the tube and a regular mic instead of that useless velcro strip
it comes shipped with.
Also the lower end should be able to lock into the chassis instead of just being pushed in a socket.
A threaded tube end and socket would have been welcome. Points off !

Guitar signal chain : Guitar -> Boss GT5 -> PA
Talkbox signal chain : Boss GT5 FX send -> Banshee -> Behringer mic -> Vocal300 processor -> PA

I bought it online without trying first and frankly at that price, I was expecting something mediocre.
To my surprise the effect is strong and not toy-like at all.
It certainly gives the real talkbox sound, not a pale cheap imitation.
Running it through a processor for adding some reverb makes a big difference.
Even through my cheapo Behringer XM2000 mic (not that bad a vocal mic actually) it sounds good. I plan on buying a SM57 or similar straight mic as it is hard to keep the tube attached parallel to the mic because of the bulb all the other microphones sport.

Actually it's impossible to decide whether or not you like the Banshee unless you record yourself,
just like your voice sounds different on recordings from what you hear in your head while singing.

The tone control is kinda tricky. If you play on the lower frets, it sounds best with the tone rolled off but high up on the neck it sounds better with the tone set high.
Compromises ... I leave mine at 12:00 since I run up and down the neck ...

Some audible hiss appears all of a sudden when the gain knob passes the 12:00 mark.
No biggie, I just set the gain at 11:59 :)) and the output fairly high (anywhere from 02:00 to 05:00)
I can definitely "feel" the sound on my palate.

I never use the amp and speaker outs.

I have many thoughts about reliability as I take it out to every single gig.
I have to tape the lower tube end to the socket : it doesn't stay in place otherwise.

While the unit looks sturdy I'm very afraid of saliva, beer and dust falling through the aperture. The internal speaker area is impossible to clean.

N/A

I'm 40 playing for 20 years.
I use the Banshee for a couple original songs.
I for one strive to get some Gilmour pig-like tones out of it as opposed to Frampton style vowels or Sambora "owah owah owah" sounds.
All these sounds are feasible though ...

One of my better purchases over the last 5 years.
Certainly worth the price and definitely a keeper !

This is very easy to use. Set up is clear, no issues as all. Getting the tube to stay in place can be tricky. Manual is OK, it is a manual.

I mainly use an Epiphone Zakk Wylde Guitar, into a Boss tuner (not sure of the model number), a Dunlop Cry Baby, the MXR ZW-44 Zakk Wylde Overdrive, Boss CH-1 Super Chorus, Rocktron Banshee Talkbox, into a Marshall JCM2000 Head and a Marshall 412. I use all Monster cables to connect everything. The sound is monsterous! I got the Rocktron Banshee to get the talkbox sound Zakk used on the BLS Mafia album. It seems to work well with my setup. It is hard to use when you are just practicing and don't have a PA setup as it turns off the output to your amp to make it work. But, you can still hear it.

So far so good. Only had it for a week now so I can't give it a 10

Nothing to report

So far I can't complain. It is pretty easy to use, but I will have to work with it to get the technique down.

Pretty easy to use. Just plug it in and go. Very easy to get that laid back 70's tone and to also get a huge screaming blast sound as well. What was hard to do was get the tube positioned on the mic right. I found some black duct tape and it works fine.

I'm most impressed with the way you can use the gain control to get the different tones to replicate the past talk box sounds. But the cool thing is that this pedal can belt it out and scream unlike other talkboxes I have heard. It took some getting use to the not hearing the sound come out of my amp. I just have my sound guy turn up my monitor when I'm using it. The manual says for optimal results to use an SM57 (I have seen Ritchie Sambora do that), but I just use my normal 58 and it sounds awesome. A friend told me that I could put another distortion pedal in front of the Banshee and use that to drive it to get a different sound but I have not tried that yet.

No issues to report. Seems extremely rugged.

No issues to report

I really like this thing. I have to use it some more to get the style down, but it is very cool. I bought the Banshee after hearing that Zakk Wylde used one on the new record. But I saw this guy in a bar use it once and he did some really cool stuff with it, no one was paying any attention to the band until he used it. The thing I really like about it is that you don't need another amp. I heard a lot of things about talkboxes, mostly that you could damage your equipment, but the Banshee is like just like a pedal so you don't need another amp.

It's as simple as can be. Connect it and start rocking !!!
Don't need a manual. Simple settings, adjust and go !

I run this the first in my pedal chain into a Marshall DSL head. Use fender strat plus guitars. I did alot of research and made a decision on the banshee. I was worried it wouldn't put out enough power.
Rest assured this thing will rattle your brain. It does the job very well. My Band members thought is was very cool. If your shopping for a talk box, buy this one. It is the safest way to add this effect and not damage your equipment.

Appears to be built very well ?

Dont know, never dealt with them.

I play classic rock and have been playing for over 20 years. I have had talk box's in the past but got discouraged because of having to have another amp to drive it. The Banshee is a safe, well made unit that works great. It's a keeper !

If it was stolen or lost I would buy another !

How easy is it? Give me a break! Plug it in and go. Nuff said.

I run an AB box so I can bypass my amp modeling effects. I have 3 guitars, a Musicman Sillouhette and 2 Ibanez jazz boxes. I use only the MM with the talkbox. It can be noisy particularlly with hissing so I make sure when I switch the AB box back to my amp I shut off the talkbox switch too. Compared to the Heil which this took the place of, it's much more meaty with a lot more sustain. It's safer too. I blew either the driver or the resistor fuse on the heil. Too much guts from my Carvin X100. Now I don't have to worry so I guess I'll have to use the extra head with another 4x12 cab to run two halfstacks.

I've had no problems with it however the dealer I bought it from said they no longer are carrying it due to reliability problems. We'll see. Don't need a backup. If it breaks I just don't play a few songs. I'll live.

Never dealt with them.

It's a good attention getter. It's one of those effects that you aren't going to use a lot but when you do it won't sound like anything else. I've been playing since the mid 60's and this thing has caused more looks from the audience than any other effect I've had. As far as volume goes I noticed it wasn't as loud as I could get my Heil but that comes from having one in the first place. Having a hundred watt head with the sound running into your mouth with enough volume to rattle your fillings can create the feeling of a lack of volume. But it's a different sound coming from the Banshee. It's more controlled and processed with a less squawky sound, more like an amplifier with a tube on it. If something happened to it I could either fix my Heil or get another Banshee. Considering the weight of my X100, I'll get another.