Is this normal?

"(I must say, when I saw the title of this thread I thought it was going ot be about turning the lights on and off repeatedly before entering or exiting a room, in which case I was going to tell you it's perfectly normal, just like excesive hand washing and fantasizing about nuns and penguins.)"

I always thought that nuns WERE penguins....

Theremins require some warm up due to the uneven heating of the parts (i.e., small components will heat up faster than large ones).

When setting up for a live performance, my first priority is to get the theremin plugged in and turned on. That is, I set up the Theremin first and plug it in -- then I set up everything else.

If my theremin has had less than a thirty minute warm up time, I tweak the tuning between each piece.

A sudden change in temperature/humidity will increase the warm up time. For example, if your theremin is stowed in a cool, air conditioned space and then you move it to a hot, humid environment condensation will occur. Allow an extra twenty minutes for the theremin to air out before turning it on and tuning.

When I played at electro-music, my rehearsal space was air conditioned and the performance space was not. I was careful to set up the theremin in an inconspicous corner of the performance space over an hour before I actually set up and turned it on.

[i]-- Kevin[/i]

Does your theremin's pitch continually "slip" or is it more like a warm-up period as Kevin describes? If you play and repeatedly have to readjust the pitch knob for, say, a full hour -

OR

if you check your pitch knob while the theremin's on - push it or jiggle it ( not turn it, actually grab it and jiggle it ) does it "yodel?" (that's the only way to describe the sound)

If the answer's yes - you might need to open 'er up and re-tune your pitch ciruit to get it to behave in a more stable fashion.

Hello,
schielenkrahe, perhaps, the pitch nulling pot has developed a fault.
And, furthermore, I think that all theremins should have a multi-turn precision pot to control the pitch null. What say you all?

Good Luck!

teslatheremin

I have heard someone talking about this.
He looks like a nice guy and he seems to know what he is talking about. :-)

Lesson 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJEbIMOfAMg)

...So say we all.

A means of conroling pitch null would be great. That's why I put holes in the lid of my standard so I can access the tuners easilly.

This sort of thing worries me as a theremin newbie.. The extent of my electronics ability stretches to changing a plug. If something goes awry with my E standard, I won't have a clue how to fix it. Do problems that necessitate "opening the hood" happen often?

This sort of thing does not happen often. But, you'd be pleasently surprised to know that the circuit components that will sometimes need adjustment are fairly easy to identify. I'm legally blind, and I successfully replaced a transistor, and diode which burned out on my E Standard.

,,,And then, there's all the nice folks here at TW who are standing by, ready to assist you.

I've hand mine Standard about a year, and have needed to adjust one of the coils once. Not difficult.

That long thin plastic two-headed screwdriver thing (possibly red) that came with the instrument. Put it somewhere you can find. Tape it inside the lid or something. You need that for adjusting coils when the time comes.

Better than tape, at Radio Shack or suchlike places you can find a variety of stick-on plastic clips intended to hold wires. You can find ones that will work well for the screwdriver thingy.