THEREMIN REVIEW SERIES

@dewster, Yeh, I'll give those a try. I also just got a pair of quarter inch jacks from ChrisC, along with a full build up copy of his Mr. Mute / LED kit I'll be putting into an EW Std, so, great to have options.

@FredM. OMG! 8inch dual floppy! I'd love to add that to my collectino of drive / discs on my table as people come in to the studio. I've got a couple of old 5.25, 3.5, but still need to display a 7 and 8 inch drive. Yeh, I used to fix comps for a "living?" Yeh, got into the field when "everyone" started learning to fix their own. LOL Then, I found the theremin. Or, did it find me? :) I've even got somoe of the legacy ware you listed, along with a co-co (Tandy color compututer), 3 Amigas, an Atari 400, a couple of 286 mother boards, one with the older soldered ram, a bunch of old ram sticks, 486s, pentium II, and III, even the intel guy in clean-room suit plush toy from when the Pentium II was new. LOL :)

Oh gosh, Del, and gateway are both guilty of sluffing off under-powered machines on customers. I've had a couple of each, and had to pay more to replace the power supplies, and add video cards, and ram to clean up behind them.

One thing I hated most about being a tech was getting hold of a machine that had a kind of virus that behaved just like hardware failures. Give me a theremin any day!

 

I know this is a forgotten post now but I still thought it was a good place to write another review. 

Back when Thomas Grillo made the video of the LV-3 I purchased one and found it to be unplayable...well it was playable but not at par with my expectations and I returned it for a refund. Thomas could make anything sound fantastic!  When I saw the LV-4 I decided to give Lost Volts another try because I wanted something that I could afford to have damaged or stolen when using my busking setup. I have a Subscope and a Hobbs that are worth one to two thousand dollars which would not be appropriate for the job. I am pleasantly surprised at how playable the L-4 is and how good it sounds! Also the dynamic volume really made me smile!  I never understood why Moog could not achieve that with the EW or EW Pro, both of which I own but seldom play for that reason. Oh and there is no chirp if you accidentally touch the volume antenna...imagine that.

I set it up in my "theremin corner" practicing my usual repertoire for a couple days now and am still pleased with this purchase. Soon I will fit it to my busking case. This is in my opinion a great starter theremin for any serious beginner at around $200 USD. The case is rather cheap but this little guy has a very strong tone from the lowest base to the uppermost treble, fair linearity for it's size and a very good dynamic volume.  I plan on making a video soon since there is nothing on YouTube that properly shows off it's capability.  I guess I am inspired to write about it because I thought it was going to be another dud like the LV-3. I think Lost Volts is on to something having a good foundation to make a contender for the EW. Anyone else try one?

Hi Brian,
interesting stuff! Unfortunately under your text i just see three "no entry" signs. Maybe not visible because of rights?

I know this is a forgotten post now but I still thought it was a good place to write another review. Back when Thomas Grillo made the video of the LV-3 I purchased one and found it to be unplayable...well it was playable but not at par with my expectations and I returned it for a refund. Thomas could make anything sound fantastic!  When I saw the LV-4 I decided to give Lost Volts another try because I wanted something that I could afford to have damaged or stolen when using my busking setup. I have a Subscope and a Hobbs that are worth one to two thousand dollars which would not be appropriate for the job. I am pleasantly surprised at how playable the L-4 is and how good it sounds! Also the dynamic volume really made me smile!  I never understood why Moog could not achieve that with the EW or EW Pro, both of which I own but seldom play for that reason. Oh and there is no chirp if you accidentally touch the volume antenna...imagine that.I set it up in my "theremin corner" practicing my usual repertoire for a couple days now and am still pleased with this purchase. Soon I will fit it to my busking case. This is in my opinion a great starter theremin for any serious beginner at around $200 USD. The case is rather cheap but this little guy has a very strong tone from the lowest base to the uppermost treble, fair linearity for it's size and a very good dynamic volume.  I plan on making a video soon since there is nothing on YouTube that properly shows off it's capability.  I guess I am inspired to write about it because I thought it was going to be another dud like the LV-3. I think Lost Volts is on to something having a good foundation to make a contender for the EW. Anyone else try one?

Thanks, I was curious about the LV4! (Although, can't see the images.) Do you know anything about what the oscillators look like?

First of all sorry for the message I sent to your private box. This post came up empty the when I first logged on and I thought the entire thread was deleted. The only thing remaining was a link to you.

I am not an electrician and even though I am curious to see what is inside I haven't opened it yet. I have no idea what happened to the pictures in my original post.  They were visible the day I did the review.  Getting pictures on here has always been a crap shoot for me. Sometimes I feel like I have to learn code to do it.  I used BUBLUP to link my photos as I have successfully done it the past. Maybe it has something to do with the age of the post. When I get around to it I will take pictures of the inside and put it in a new post or open it on YouTube....that may be more fun! 

After playing it for over a week I would call it an upgrade to the B3 Pro but not something I would use for a stage gig.   The upper scale requires tight fingering while moving my body closer to the antenna helps when playing higher notes.  I still think it is a great starter theremin and works well with my busking setup without risking damage to my Subscope.  When in the street with all the distracting noises the difference is negligible. 

I hope this helps.....

Thanks for those pix bisem!

It looks quite minimalist (not necessarily a bad thing) - I only see 3 transistors.

Well as you know I am not an electrician. I do know that it is perfect for my busking setup. 
The case is a cheap piece of plastic which makes it lightweight for carrying around. The sound is very traditional much like the EWS except that it behaves much better with the Roland Micro Cube amp that I transplanted into the case. Dimensions are only 14 x 4 x 1 and weighs in at 1.26 lbs. I can't figure out why it sounds and plays so well for what it is. 

Here is the evolution of my setup:The EWS was very heavy, hard to fit in the bottom case and did not sound good with the amp. The Subscope worked great but was too expensive and treasured by me to risk playing on the street. The LV4 is perfect.  I will record a sound sample in a week or so.

Hi! I read this post only now, but I can say i totally agree with you about LV-4! like in your case, I first bought the LV-3 just to have an idea and I was curious after Thomas videos; I found it quite good after some practice, of course it's not so linear but I managed to play it on a private concert, sure it's very basic! so I got the LV-4 and yeah it sounds really good, also considering its price!  
I actually made some videos with it on youtube, I'm gonna make more and I'm about to make a review too! 
I like in particular the volume dynamics you can get playing with it as well, that's the first thing that made me think I made a good decision to buy one!  
yes it's perfect for beginners! 
I'm also testing it on a pedalboard with some effects and the result is amazing!!

thank you for your review, I'm happy that there's someone else who enjoys that instrument! 😊