Theremins Techniques?

Wasn't theremin able to construct his instruments with junked radios, smashing the local oscillators together through a diode junction and low pass filter? How might I do this rather than go through the fabrication procedures of most schematics projects. I guess first off I would need access to a RF O-scope and a schematic archive for most radios on the market? If anyone has any advice let me know.

Leon Theremin carefully engineered his instruments and built dozens of prototypes before arriving at the instrument he introduced in 1927. Construction was not at all haphazard, nor was it a serendipitous throwing together of bits and pieces of "junked radios" .

I suggest you read Albert Glinsky's excellent book, THEREMIN, ETHER MUSIC AND ESPIONAGE (http://www.amazon.com/Theremin-ETHER-MUSIC-ESPIONAGE-American/dp/0252072758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275737995&sr=1-1). I think it may answer many of your questions about early theremin development.

Im looking more for technical information rather than biographical. I have researched Theremins biography and know that aside from what prototypes he submited he was capable of constructing his instruments this way. They might not have been the ones he used as his final design but I know that a lot of RF technicians were able to put things together modularly rather than through painstaking soldiering and fabrication.