I have a cover band and we cover a lot of arena rock. Back in the 80’s you needed a pair of vice grips on your nuts to hit some of those octaves. Being 30+ years older isn’t easier to sing. I figured out a cheat on how to hit those notes by using LEAD MUTE and OCTAVE UP on the Voice Box. This issue is when you kit on the OCTAVE UP portion…the volume drops out about 15%. I use this effect to sing Motley Crue, Firehouse, Quiet Riot, Slaughter and other ball busting Octaves with ease. I sing an octave lower…and what comes out of the amp is blistering octave up vocals.

The issue with the current VOICE BOX is the reverb is very minimalistic, there is no DELAY effects, and the GENDER doesn’t have a lot of range. Again when I use the LEAD MUTE with the OCTAVE UP the volume drops out. Sure there is a mic boost switch but its too much and its not hands free when switching between bypass and the effect.

EUREKA…a new product is born. Hypothetically call it the ROCK VOX. Lets pretend you are singing the song by Steel Heart, “I’ll Never Let You go” .

You sing the lyrics in a normal voice however, when you get to the chorus of the song, you step on the LEAD MUTE/OCTAVE UP switch and you can still maintain your normal singing voice, while out of the speaker you hear blistering octave up vocals coming out with delay and reverb. Once the chorus is over, you step on the LEAD MUTE/OCTAVE up switch and you are back to normal voice. I use this trick all of the time and it blows the crowd away. However I found flaws with TC Helicon doing this as well as volume drop out issues with Electro-harmonix VOICE BOX. This could be built several ways.

1. Create a dry pedal that has Gender Bender and when you step on a switch, it automatically LEAD MUTES/OCATAVE up. Can add separate reverb and delay pedals to the chain.

2. Use existing pedals and combine in one platform. Put the HOLY GRAIL REVERB next to the PROPHET DELAY side by side built in the pedal design. Then add the LEAD MUTE/OCTAVE UP PEDAL integrated with those platforms. Make sure to put the OCTAVE UP/LEAD MUTE switch to the far Left of the pedal for easy access and activation to avoid accidentally stepping on the other switches. I drew out the design but I am unable to attach it. Kindly email me and I will email the design concept not to scale. A crude example of the layout below:

(KNOBS) GENDER BENDER REVERB TIME REPEATS MIX
spring 1/16
hall 1/8
flerb 3/8

LARGE LED 0 0 0 0 (SMALL 0 ARE LED INDICATORS)

0 0 0 0 (SMALL 0 ARE THE METAL FOOT SWITCHES)

(FOOT SWITCHES) OCTAVE ON/OFF MIC BYPASS REVERB DELAY
LEAD MUTE ON/OFF ON/OFF

***A large LED indicator is helpful becomes sometimes you forget to turn it off and when you speak the audience you sound like Mickey Mouse.
***The foot switch near the end makes it easier to turn off and on without having to look down while playing guitar.
*** Integrate the lead mute and the octave up together. Make sure there is no signal drop or boost when activated.

Thanks for humoring me.
discokillers2018@gmail.com

Many people would love to easily sing high range songs but just can do it (that includes me). With a similar set up I am knocking it out of the park. I believe this item would be a huge success.