Entry level theremin?

Hippie403, I think ya done good ordering an Etherwave Plus. It is an excellent entry level instrument and it is not a toy (which many of the low priced instruments are).

The kind of theremin you buy ought to be determined by the kind of music you want to make and where you want to go musically. With the theremin, EVERYBODY IS AN EXPERT so the best thing to do is to watch and listen carefully to as many thereminists as possible, and then go in the direction of the artists you most admire or enjoy.

There are so-called theremin "tutorials" on YouTube posted by people who mean well but who, by their own admission, have only been playing for a few days. Their instrument is barely out of the box, and already they are explaining the finer points of space control technique, and showing others how to play!

People don't do this with traditional instruments because they couldn't get away with it. Could you imagine someone trying to deliver a cello or flute tutorial after playing for only a few days?

Like I said, with the theremin, everybody's an expert - even people who don't know their arse from their pitch antenna.

The Etherwave Plus is a great place to start your theremin adventure.

@macdanuk:

All Etherwaves (be it plus or standard, there is no difference in this part of the circuit) sold after 2005 which I've seen have other linearization coils than the earlier production runs. And these give a better linearity and playability under the condition that the oscillator coils are well adjusted and the player has set the pitch knob in an adequate manner.

The latter means:
a) the player stands not too close to the instrument so that the pitch knob has not to be misused to compensate "the paunch factor".
b) the player is aware of the fact that linearity in the lower range is a question of only a few degrees or millimeters when turning the pitch knob. Correct tuning of an Etherwave is as delicate as tuning a violin E-string. Just obtaining "zero beat" with the hand at ones shoulder is not precise enough.
c) The oscillators of the EW are relatively stable. But a deviation of only 40Hz during the warm-up phase shifts the middle C only by a bit less than two centimeters while the C two octaves lower wanders by about 7cm in the same time. So a warm-up time of about 15 min. is required before fine-tuning and (precision) playing.
Observing this will give a rock-solid pitch field.

Congratulations on your purchase, Greg. I hope you enjoy it and find the time to get the most out of it.

And don't forget there are always plenty of folk here on TW willing to answer your questions in far more detail and with more contradictory opinions than you could ever require!

oops!

Oops again.

I only posted once. Honest. Thanks for pointing it out Teslatheremin! :-)

Gordon Charleton!
I just wish that you had posted Four times!
I so loved the Quadraphonic music of the early 1980's!
HA!
Good Luck!
tt