Hello from Canada

Hi forum, I am a new thereminist(?) from the west coast of Canada. I am not new to music and production, having been a former professional performer and recording artist. These days I'm a simple tradesperson with a gear acquisition syndrome hobby studio that is getting a little out of hand. I play guitar, synth and hand percussion, and now a Theremini.
I came to the theremin by way of midi soft synth control research. My old controller (a Roland jp-8000) bit the dust, not sending midi any more. I have an 88 key keyboard I like, just needed a mod wheel or something like that. After much time spent puttering around the internet I discovered the Moog Claravox Centennial.
It seemed like a cosmic convergence of perfect things lining up, being the 100th anniversary, an instrument you don't touch coming out during a global pandemic, some promising looking midi capability, comes left handed, and just a fantastic sound from a company whose gear I've always coveted yet never owned.
BUT
Slightly cooler heads must prevail, I've bought cars that cost less than this thing. So I went to the music store and rented a Theremini. 2 hours later, I drove back and put down the deposit on a left handed Claravox with matching stand. I am left handed yet play guitar right, so my left controls pitch on the guitar neck and it seemed the natural way for me. My hand and ears seemed steady enough to carry a tune, and I could midi map it to control filters in logic pro. 
Then I got paranoid.
After about a week of deep diving into the Theremini, I learned I didn't like the quantisation or effects and was mostly stripping it down to mono out, original tone and going to the pedal board or line in to the computer. Also there seemed to be latency, inconsistency in pitch locations in space, and the knobs seemed flimsy and sloppy. Would I have been better off just getting a diy kit? Too late now, probably can't sell a left handed theremin...
Then I find this forum.
The thread where the Moog engineer answers all your questions soothed my pacing and fretting quite a lot. I'm now waiting for my Claravox a little more patiently, but could also use some reassurance from you fine folk that we're dealing with a different tier of quality here.
Hopefully I can contribute some fun tips and tricks around here, from guitar pedals to midi abuse. Maybe this will lead me down the cv and modular rabbit hole as well.

"After about a week of deep diving into the Theremini, I learned I didn't like the quantisation or effects and was mostly stripping it down to mono out, original tone and going to the pedal board or line in to the computer. Also there seemed to be latency, inconsistency in pitch locations in space, and the knobs seemed flimsy and sloppy. Would I have been better off just getting a diy kit? Too late now, probably can't sell a left handed theremin..."  - Msquared

The Theremini is a toy with very low gestural bandwidth.  By all appearances (at this point anyway) the Claravox isn't.

Welcome Msquared!

Glad you decided to take the leap. I think history has shown that the high end Moog devices are generally a good purchase!

What part of the Left Coast do you hail from? I grew up on the Gulf Islands and went to school in Vic and Nanaimo, and lived in Ucluelet as well. (although I'm south of the border, now)

It's a good thing you discovered theremin...if you had the misfortune to discover Eurorack, your gear addiction would *definitely* get out of hand!

Hi Msquared,

I think all of us that have laid down our money to pre-order are with you in hoping that we are indeed dealing with a different tier of quality.   I'm pretty excited that at least some of the basic design of the Etherwave Pro is being incorporated into the Claravox. I ordered mine on the day after it was announced and well before any of the technical information was available, and I can say that I'm a lot more excited about it now than I was when I ordered.  No theremin will please everybody, but having the demonstration and positive words from the likes of Gregoire Blanc is good enough for me.

So relax and savor the wait.  Boom or bust, you are probably buying a collectible, particularly if you are getting a left-handed version.  It's not like we are flooded with theremin choices to drain our wallets, and I'm pretty confident in Moog, even if they didn't consult with me on the design (joking, of course - that's a little poke at some of the the early bashing of the Claravox on Facebook).

Thanks for the replies, I'm in Vancouver but know the islands well. Still pacing with excitement. I suppose I've bought instruments on spec without playing them in the past and had pretty good luck, I can see a lot of possibility in the YouTube clips. I just keep thinking of the time I bought pants on the internet without trying them on, and they are comically huge.