Buying a used Moog Etherwave on Ebay?

I am buying my first theremin and ideally would like to spend less and buy a used one on ebay. I'm not familiar with the durability and lifespan on theremins and am wondering if it's worth spending the extra $100 or so and buying a new one. Do they typically come with warranties and is there much advantage in buying one new vs. used? The ones I have seen listed are described as in "mint condition" or used with minor scratches and "works perfectly." Any advice is much appreciated!

Thank you.

Seen that for other music instruments like violins or grand pianos, you spend several thousands of dollars to get something reliable, it is highly disrespectful towards the theremin to try to save just lousy $100...

Who are the people to judge about "mint condition" or "works perfectly"? Professional Thereminists with years long training or just people who set it up quickly and check if it does a whoooooo-eeeeee-oooooo?

A theremin has highly sensitive electronics inside which need to be recalibrated regularly (I tend to compare it with cars which need to be serviced, too, every 30000km) to produce optimal results in terms of pitch range, linearity, and volume expression. An instrument where maintenance has been neglected will still play, but it will not give optimal results.

"I am buying my first theremin and ideally would like to spend less and buy a used one on ebay."  - aliamo

A local Thereminist I know bought a couple Etherwaves used, one the plus, the other a Big Briar, and they both work as good as my new EW did (I know because I added the ESPE01 modules to them).  Sometimes you run across an offer you can't refuse, though it helps if you already have an instrument to play to fall back on and to let you know what it really is and can do.  You might try used sites that see fewer eyes, such as craigslist, for sellers just trying to ditch stuff and therefore asking lower prices.

I have mixed feelings about the EW.  On the one hand it's a proven design by a competent designer and manufacturer.  On the other it lacks an antenna capacitance knob, it can go out of tune to the point where you need to open it up and do painful adjustments, the pitch side is overly coupled, it has cheesy plumbing antennas, and it's overpriced.  But there aren't a lot of choices out there for decent Theremins, unfortunately.  And I'm not particularly fond of the tone of any of Bob M's Theremins, though lord knows he almost single-handedly kept the field alive and moving forward.

Thanks for the advice. Thierry, I will be just starting out and am a struggling artist, so not financially well off. I need to save as much as possible. I will be learning on this model and as I progress will likely look for a more professional model. You are right, I do not know what frame of reference the people are selling are using in their assessments of "mint condition" etc. I did not know a theremin needs to be recalibrated regularly, this is the type of information I have been looking to find which will help me decide whether to buy used or not. 

Dewster, thanks for the information. I did find one on Craig's List for $265. This is the one that has "minor scratches" but "works perfectly." The price includes a case and stand as well. Do you happen to have a recommendation for a better model (with the capacitance knob e.g.) in the same price range? 

Thanks again. 

"I did find one on Craig's List for $265. This is the one that has "minor scratches" but "works perfectly." The price includes a case and stand as well."  - aliamo

Sounds like that could be a good deal.  Is it close enough for you to go look at it?  Having the bag is really nice, it ain't cheap if you buy it new.  IMO Etherwaves aren't worth the new price, but used in good shape with the extras can be worth it (at least until something better comes along).

"Do you happen to have a recommendation for a better model (with the capacitance knob e.g.) in the same price range?"

No, sorry.  Well, maybe ping Dominik for a subscope if/when you get really serious.  Don't get a Theremini though, it's a toy.

Thanks so much, Dewster. It's about 45 minutes away so I don't mind going to look at it. Although since I have never played I'm not sure exactly what I should be looking out for. It's the standard, not the plus. I think the standard should be find for my needs for now, from what I have read. 

Put it on the stand, plug it into a grounded outlet, and see if you can adjust the pitch knob to get zero Hz with your body standing an arms length away from the pitch antenna with your arm at your side.  See if you can adjust the volume field to give no volume when touching the antenna with your hand and give maximum volume with your hand 6" or 12" away.  If you can almost get the above then it probably just needs a touch-up.  The other knobs should adjust the timbre, though not excessively so.  That's about it.  You could bring a screw driver along to give it a quick look inside to see if anyone has obviously monkeyed with it, just 4 screws, I think I would do that.

If you're not going to hook it up to an external analog synth then the standard should be fine.

265 with bag and stand sounds quite fair to me. 80 for bag another 40 for a stand..145 for a theremin..cool. leaves some money for a nice keyboard amp or a reverb.....you should check it personally, the seller will surely know how it works, what the knobs do and how to set up pitch-field and volume-response with them. maybe he has also still the red tuning tool for a possible internal tuning, just in case you have to one day open the pandora box. make yourself familiar with terms like, capacitance, zero beat, oscillators, finger techknick, grounding, crescendo...and such for a better understanding of the complexity of a theremin. 

you should be fine with the standart. if you're not into synths, the plus adds only 3 cv-outputs and a xtra headphone output with volume knob. not more. well, a led too. ;-)

dewster, what the heck is a antenna capacitance knob good for? i've never heard of that.  (edit.: i wrote and wrote,made a nice cup of tea and forgot to hit the post button.) 

"...what the heck is a antenna capacitance knob good for?" - xtheremin8

It's a small (few pF) variable capacitance from the antenna to ground.  Theremin's designs had one, some of Bob's earlier ones did too.  On the EW the panel knob moves the fixed oscillator around, but you really want to adapt everything to different environmental capacitance that the antenna sees.  I don't have direct experience with it, but some seem to say that you can adjust pitch sensitivity with it.

theremin himself had also some weird looking things attached to his instrument on a b/w picture...hmmm, or like thierry suggested recently in a post for an unmatable instrument?  or that bendable pitch-wire/aluminium-foil pre-grounding..thing in the EW is for something similar.