Which Theremin to get...

So, I will apoligize in advance to all the theremin purists - I am looking to purchase a theremin - my desired features are listed in order of importance:

1) Rubber Antenna - (this is definitely gonna be used in a "live" environment with people jumping around - so safety and portability are some key concerns)

2) Durability - refer to #1 - this will be a road-instrument

3) Mostly used for sound effects - will never be used for melodies (again, I appoligize in advance to the theremin purists - i can definitely appreciate where you guys are coming from though)

4) Sound quality (important)

5) Separate pitch and volume is not important (again I apologize to the theremin purists).

6) Hopefully I can get all of the above without having to reduce myself to the 6 inch experience...


Basically, I am looking for the manufacture of the Theremin used by Golfrapp - pretty much exactly the device I am looking for, though i do not plan on sticking it between my legs).... :)

If you strongly care that it *come with* a rubber antenna, that will substantially limit your choices, so you might wish to consider the possibility of buying a unit with an inflexible antenna and replacing it.

You say that "sound quality" is important, but that's entirely subjective. We really have no way to guess what constitutes good "sound quality" to you, you'll just know it when you hear it. When evaluating a model, try to find a recording of it on the Internet... preferably more than one, because the recording conditions could dramatically change the sound properties.

Otherwise, you're not looking for anything unusual - I'm sure there are many models which would make you happy, and many of them are likely to be fairly inexpensive as well. You might want to look through the Theremin Gallery on this web site and check out various models to see what meets your requirements and sounds good to you.

By the way - there's nothing whatsoever wrong with what you're looking for, and indeed it's good for you that you know that that's what you want, because it means that there are far more options which could satisfy your needs. We may sometimes seem down on instruments without a volume antenna here, but that's primarily because they can be difficult for melodic playing... but since that's not what you want [i]and you know it[/i], an instrument without a volume antenna is just fine.

Jake Rothman made Goldfrapp's theremin.

http://theremin.co.uk

I believe it is the Eclipse that you want, but if that does not quite fit the bill Jake does a lot of custom work.