Behind The Scenes & More! - Here's a photo collage posted by "Rigs Of The Pros' (great site) featuring several photos of Richard Fortus' rig. The timing is ironic as we have this amp in the shop being serviced for the (hopeful) up coming Guns N' Roses tour. This amp was custom built for Richard in 2007 & has a great story behind it (coming soon). The white box you see on the pedal board with the Circle-V logo is the 1 of 3 prototype Talkboxes Trace designed. Initially he designed this after hand-wiring a couple Framptone Talkboxes for Bon Jovi & making them full range. He texted a quick video demo to Richard & he asked us to build one for him. Richard has the 1st prototype, Joe Perry of Aerosmith has the 2nd & both currently tour with them. The 3rd one resides in Trace’s office here at our facility & is identical to the one in the photo. We plan to officially release both the ‘R4-Single’ Signature Series Amp & the Talkbox at Summer Namm in Nashville!
From Trace Davis, President / Founder “From the bottom of my heart I want to thank Richard Fortus for his continued support & for his friendship. He is one of the greatest guys I know & his talent is seemingly endless, truly.”
We also want to send out a big thank you to ‘Rigs Of The Pros’ for posting this photo collage & go check out their site as well! As always please feel free to share this post to your wall or if you have a friend that you want to see this please feel free to tag their name in a post or share it to their wall. Many thanks! - Voodoo Amps
Updated Info (03-17-2016) -- We have received a number of requests asking for additional info on the Talkboxes. This is from Trace, “Traditionally Talkboxes were connected or sandwiched between the head & speaker cabinet, which is what was used on all the classic records you hear on Classic Rock Radio (Frampton, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Alice In Chains, etc). In recent years companies designed a wave of ‘pedal’ like versions, which have an onboard solid state preamp & are placed in front of the amps like a pedal would be. Common complaints are that these units do not sound as authentic. The ‘Golden Throat’ is considered by many to be the best sounding Talkbox but has long since been discontinued & sells for good money when you find a working unit as they are collectible.
Full Range – Traditional Talkboxes on the market utilize a crossover network which is essentially designed to select a certain frequency point & 'roll off' all frequencies from that point & below (IE: roll off all the lower mid & bass frequencies). It allows companies to use drivers with lower wattage ratings, which is more cost effective but it also results in a thinner or more strident tone. Going with a higher wattage driver, as well as making a few other allocations in the circuit, allows one to forego the crossover approach in favor of a full-range tone. IE: you get all of the amp’s tone & rich low end coming through, or in other words you get the same tone coming through the Talkbox that comes through the speaker cabinet, which is more inspiring.
A Full Range Talkbox is a very cool effect & much like a wah it all comes down to how the player chooses to use it. For those who are not familiar I should mention that a mic is needed to amplify the signal to the PA & monitors. There is a video with Richard Fortus in the recording studio with The Dead Daisies using a Talkbox & its best captured on their song “You & I”. We also have replaceable mouth pieces so that dealers can allow customers to demo a Talkbox in the store & not break any health code regulations. Additional mouth pieces will be included in a sealed package when purchasing a Talkbox along with simple instructions on how to sterilize them, which is incredibly easy.” - Voodoo Amps