Hey everybody,
My name is Ben Aldrich and I’m a pipe organ builder in Otsego, Mi. It’s near Kalamazoo.
I became interested in the Theremin on a road trip about 4 years ago. I heard a “This American Life” story where they put together a band from classified ads in the newspaper. They picked up a thereminist. I told my wife, “I must make one.” The next Monday, I went into work and told my boss that I wanted to build a Theremin. Without hesitation, he went into his desk drawer and pulled out the schematic for Clara Rockmore’s Theremin.
It was like looking at Greek. I knew absolutely nothing about Tubes, coils, or electrical diagrams. I looked on the internet for some info on the values of all of these parts but came up empty. The project was dumped.
Last year I was looking around my deceased Granddad’s basement and came across a box of tubes. My flame was rekindled. I took them to work and had many of the tubes necessary for building an RCA AR1264 replica. I searched the internet again and found this site as well as Arthur Harrison’s sight. Mark M. had found many of the values and I was off to the races.
I have a wife and two Labs. I’ve build several other cool things like a 17-foot Kayak and a fully operational 4 X 5 field camera (like the really old ones!).
This site is cool.
Ben A.
P.S. Clara Rockmore is my Idol.