An electronics hobbyist based in Bochum, Germany has launched an interesting project via Kickstarter this week in the form of a Nixie tube theremin instrument which has been built using 4 vacuum-tubes and only discrete components to make it as near to the original Theremin as possible. the demonstration video below to learn more about the Tube-Theremin which is launched via Kickstarter and is now available to back with earlybird pledges available from €180 or £154. If manufacturing progresses smoothly worldwide shipping is expected to commence sometime around June 2019.
It’s creator explains more about the inspiration behind the Nixie tube theremin. “The Theremin was the first electronic musical instrument invented by Russian phisicist Leon Theremin and celebrates it´s 100th birthday next year. Therefore we wanted to recreate a small but nevertheless playable and fully working Theremin with as much of the original (vintage) technology as possible. That´s why we settled on using vacuum tubes instead of modern-day IC´s (which all the other Theremins on the market do use).
There is not a single IC involved and the only pieces of silicon are three transistors to create by means of a ring-oscillator the 40VDC anode-voltage for the tubes (plus 1 or 2 diodes). Because we only use 12V DC for the tube heaters the Tube-Theremin is absolutely safe concerning electric shock (contrary to what first comes to mind when thinking of vacuum-tubes with their often hundreds of Volts supply voltage). We also wanted to make the Tube-Theremin look beautiful so that it can be a bit of an eye-catcher when presented on a show or just sitting on a shelf in your living-room, lab etc. “
Source: Kickstarter
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