New Etherwave owner, strange problems...

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scav
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:47 am

New Etherwave owner, strange problems...

Post by scav » Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:18 am

So, I found an orphaned Etherwave. A local school was throwing it out, and I recognized it as a theremin, and decided to adopt the poor thing (I did tell them what it was). The lady who gave it to me apparently knew Dr. Moog, who alleged that he imparted it unto her quite a long time ago. I'm not sure I believe that story, but hey, free theremin! It says BigBriar on it, with a serial number around 2500. I doubt it's been used in 10 years or so.

Now, when I turn it on, it emits the most horrible screech. It's really quite loud and high pitched. The volume loop appears to respond as it should, but the pitch antenna is incredibly insensitive. I have to almost touch it before I can hear the pitch change. I'm not sure what could be causing this, and I hope I haven't passed over something important in the manuals. Also, I'm very electronically inclined, and not afraid to break out the soldering iron and replace components if I've got to.

What might be causing this? More importantly, how can I fix it? I apologize if I've asked anything dumb, I'm not familiar with these things. Thank you for reading.

Just Me
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Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:46 pm
Location: The Great Southwest

Re: New Etherwave owner, strange problems...

Post by Just Me » Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:14 am

Sounds like it needs to be calibrated. The instructions are available on the Moog website here.
http://www.moogmusic.com/manuals/HotRodEtherwav.pdf
"Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."

scav
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:47 am

Re: New Etherwave owner, strange problems...

Post by scav » Sat Feb 12, 2011 4:38 pm

I think I've discovered the issue. I'm using a guitar amp.

Shame on me. Anyway, I'm not keen on tearing R33 out of my theremin, can't I just use a voltage divider?

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Gordon Charlton
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Re: New Etherwave owner, strange problems...

Post by Gordon Charlton » Fri Mar 04, 2011 7:40 am

Overdriving a guitar amp will certainly distort the signal, but I don't think it would affect the response of the pitch antenna. That sounds like a separate issue.

Before I had my etherwave modded by Thierry Frenkel to include an output volume knob I used a low impedance inline volume treadle to attenuate the signal before reaching my guitar amp. Something like a Boss FV 500L. (But not a Boss - a cheap Itailian knock-off with Boston written on it. It's a bit crunchy in operation, but I never operated the treadle while performing, just set it to the right level and left it alone.)

A passive DI box would work too.

Plenty of options, really, but all significantly costlier than replacing a single resistor. :?
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