Talk Box and Other Toys Are Part of Rock Hall Tribute to Heil

Honors for Bob Heil and Heil Sound coming up.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will add Heil artifacts to its technology and music exhibits; a dedication and private party will take place at the museum on June 7.
Heil started business as a small music store in Marissa, Ill., aiming at the Hammond organ market. But it went on to provide live sound production for groups like The Who, ZZ Top, Grateful Dead, Eagles, Peter Frampton and numerous other big names in the 1960s and ’70s.
Museum Curatorial Director Howard Kramer called Heil “truly an innovator in the field of live sound.” He credits the company with developing the first live mixing console, electronic crossover and parametric equalizer, as well as the first fiberglass speaker horns.
Serial Number 1 of the Talk Box is part of the exhibit; the device is known from Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” and Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” album.
Display items include a Mavis mixer built for Pete Townshend and the Who’s Quadrophenia tour as well as Townshend’s guitar and Roger Daltry’s microphone, which, the announcement stated, “is still wrapped in red gaffers tape to prevent the microphone from being launched into the crowd as the singer twirled it overhead.”