I have been considering one of these lately. I know they have been around for like, well, since about the 1920's or 30's but I have always been fascinated by these.
Some top musicians are still using theremins, so, if you've never seen one, take a look.
A real cool dude demonstrating here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd4jvtAr ... ure=fvwrel

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, thats what those things are. what exactly is this? ive seen them but dont know anything about them. i want one whatever it is lol.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

think beach boys "good vibrations" they use a theramin in that song

how do they work though?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Haha, Well...erm.. you kinda wave your arms about in front of 'em
Watch the video's, they go up to about 5 lessons. It's all about sine waves and tech stuff like that. Joe Bonamassa uses one of these and think Jimmy Page in Whole Lotta Love and these things are not too expensive. I'm looking at a analogue one for fifty quids and it as a range of 5 inches to 5 feet.
That means you can stand 5 feet away and wave your arms and weird and wonderful sounds come out, especially good with a lot of reverb. Yeah!! you too can look like a sorcerer like Jimmy Page did.

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been watching all the videos since your post.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Hi Rhumba: you gotta go for it!

I must admit, I can't recall ever hearing anything very tuneful coming out of a theremin. But I always wanted one just so's I could leave it set up near the front door, so when visitors go to hang up their coats, suddenly... inexplicable screechy alien noises fill the air. Cue visitors jumping out of their skins with looks on their faces of "what the...?"



Cheers - C

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Ceri, sounds like something you would do!
Did Nick speak to you about getting together in London?

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Current Gear: Ron Kirn Barnbuster Tele,
Marshall: 1971 SuperLead 100>1997 1960-TV, bunch of pedals
and a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera coupe named Veronica

He did!

I am absolutely up for it. Name the time and the place. Drinks are on me.

Contact me on Facebook if you like, or Nick is welcome to pass on my email address to you. I'd love to see this famous Les Paul too...

Cheers man - C

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Hi Ceri, That's good enough for me, I'm gonna have one of these.

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Definitely could be a cool add-on to a tune, or in the bedroom if anything else.

The history of the the Theremin's inventor is as bizarre and as compelling as the Theremin itself. Look up Lev Thermin for the full story, involving his kidnap by the KGB, who forced him into developing electronics for their cold war efforts. Found living in Moscow as an old man, long after the world believed him missing - presumed dead..

I saw his granddaughter, Lydia Karvina, playing the theremin to a brilliant standard at the Barber Institute, Birmingham University. Amazing (if very odd) night..

Needless to say I bought one - the Etherwave - as a ready assembled kit from Big Bryher. This was Bob Moog's company at the time. He started his career building theremins as a schoolboy. And he returned to building theremins after Norlin bought out Moog, and he lost the right to use his own name for his products. Once resolved, his later theremins (some incredibly elaborate with midi interfaces) bore the name and Moog logo. They are seriously professional machines.

I bought a theremin because I was attracted by the challenge. They really test just how good your sense of pitch is. I'm lucky enough to have perfect pitch, but I still really struggled to get much more than simple melodies out of it. As well as the necessary pitch awareness, the big challenge is that you don't have musical clues - no keys or frets to tell where to find the note. It's an incredibly abstract way of making music, because you don't touch the machine at all once you've turned it on.

Ultimately I sold mine. It needed much dedication and practise than I could spare for it, and I wasn't happy sounding like a drunken one stringed violinist. But buy one by all means - you'll have hours of fun. And your family will grow to hate you..

We're all guitarists here, so look at this, but don't fall in love. Moog guitars cost a fortune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkjFCN8u ... re=related

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I heard about some guy putting one in a garden gnome to frighten passers-by. Frankly I'd buy one just because of how much fun they look in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh38CmbGFBM

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Rated "M" for meaty.

EDIT correction.. Sorry, the inventor's name is generally anglicised to Leon Theremin. Here's some more info if you want it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Theremin

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Hi adey, Yes I've seen a youtube vid of Lydia Karvina playing Claire De Lune, well I think it was her anyway and it was brilliant.
Have you heard of Tomita and his album 'Snowflakes Are Dancing'? it was recorded in the early 70's. Some amazing Theremin playing on that, with synth's thrown in.

I know what you mean. Nothing sounds worse than a violin being played badly, I know.....I really know. We had a violinist in a band I was in once and woah man!! he was bad and it drove us all crazy.
Thanks for the info.

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