Has anyone bought the kit from ebay ?

Hi,

I'm wanting to buy the theremin kit from ebay, seller is 'Hako1_BASystems', you can see the item here: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-COMPLETE-THEREMIN-THERAMIN-SYNTHESISER-KIT_W0QQitemZ320230508061QQihZ011QQcategoryZ38071QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

Has anyone bought this kit or one similar and if so does the circular aluminium plate work as effectivly as the circular antenna you see on other kits ?

I dont have the money for a more expensive kit and it seems its the only one I can get being in australia anyway.

So what I'm asking, does anyone know if this is going to be a good little theremin for me, or is it a piece of rubbish and I should save my money for a better kit.

Any advice would be great

jane :)

Hi Jane,

That's a Jaycar kit. If you click on the search link up near the top of the page you'll find a whole bunch of info about it here on thereminworld.

The general consensus is that it's a toy, but one that can be adapted into a reasonable instrument. In fact it was the basis of the Tasmania based Kees Enkelaar theremin, which has recently gone out of production.

(In fact I notice that Kees has taken down his website completely now. It might be worth contacting him - contact details still exist in google cache - and asking if he will share his proprietary modifications. Worst that can happen is that he will say no.)

@GordonC: That's a great idea, Gordon. Is someone here in the forum familiar enough with Kees, so that he/she may contact hin?

Thanks for responding so quickly.

So it pretty much is just a toy, unless its modified alot.

I have no knowledge at all in making any kinds of modifications so even if I was given instructions I'd probably pretty successfully stuff it up.

Oh well, thanks anyway guys.
Hopefully one day I'll find a way of buying a fully contructed working one that is an instrument and not a toy version.

Have a look on ebay.com!

Dan Burns (alias capt.theremin) is selling there his B3 Theremin for around 100 EUR/150 USD. This is not expensive, compared to the Moog Etherwave, but allows already musical playing as Thomas Grillo demonstrates on youtube.

I think the B3 is a good beginner's instrument.

Thanks but you can only buy those ones by PayPal which I dont have and dont plan on getting.
But thanks for the link anyhow :)