Etherwave problems

Got my new Ewave Std last month. It worked fine, but now, whenever I turn the "Pitch" knob, the pitch would "fly" all over the place - even when I'm holding a steady note, the note would "jump", by itself. And my octave range seems to become narrower while the sensitivity, from one note to another, would be REALLY wide.
I'd need to leave the theremin for a while (to settle down) before I can play it again.

Can you give me some of your views as to why this would happen?
Thanks!

theremino

Not that I have experience with the Etherwave standard, however my first thought is that your pitch control pot is scratchy.

You mentioned you have to walk away to let it settle down... well, the resisters in the theremin are heat-sensitive ... and they may take up to 15 minutes to stabilize.

Guess there could be a weak/cold solder joint somewhere. You might try tapping the Theremin to see if that affects anything...

Also, you might try removing and reattaching the pitch antenna. A loose attachment would cause the pitch to jump around.

For the pitch to jump around randomly upon turning the pitch control would not be normal, in any event.

Are you still having the problem?

It's still giving me this problem.
For the first 2 months or so, it was perfect. Then all of a sudden this happened! :-P
My contingency is to try to open up the Etherwave and do the pitch calibration that the manual mentions. I hope it's just that! :-P

Theremino

If that doesn't work, you probably want to call Moog Music and have it serviced. A "healthy" Etherwave shouldn't do that at all. Did it get dropped or fall over at any point? It's possible something got knocked loose or maybe you have a flaky connection somewhere. One other thing to try would be to get some of that stereo dust remover spray stuff and blow it into the pitch knob potentiometer. If some dust got in there, it might be causing an intermittent glitch.