THEREMINS I HAVE KNOWN Hands-On Encounters with Models and Makes THE B3 THEREMIN

I'lve seen pictures of the B3 online for years. Being totally obsessed with Theremins, I'lm always curious about ones other than my own and would love the experience of at least playing them. I finally had the opportunity to meet a B3 and play it. My first impression was that it was much smaller than I expected it to be. Aside from that, I found it very playable once I was able to get it set. Like the Kees, the pitch trim tends to drift. Setting zero beat and simultaneously trying to set a control zone of about eighteen inches to be pretty tricky. In fairness, maybe it was just the unit I played. The documentation covered almost nothing in the way of teaching a newcomer how to set it up for zero beat, volume response, etc. The B3 has two knobs on the front. The volume knob actually clicks to turn the instrument on and off, as well as providing a good volume range. I was unable to discern any influence it had over the actual volume loop as regards sharp or soft response. The second knob on the front is the pitch knob, used to set zero beat and control zone depth. A second look at the documentation showed nothing relative to changing the waveform, so I believe it'ls just set one way. Also, on the unit I played, the size of the field around the volume loop – the threshold between silence and noise – was so close to the volume loop ( about ¼ of an inch) that it was almost impossible to achieve silence between notes without hitting the loop every time. An e-mail to tech support resulted in learning that there'ls a hole in the bottom of the unit – using a little plastic screwdriver, it'ls possible to access a trim pot to adjust the volume antenna response. Once I'ld made the adjustment, I could fully dampen a note with my hand about two inches above the antenna. At less than half the price of an Etherwave, the B3 is a decent entry-level bet if you'lre aspiring to play notated music, but you'll likely want to upgrade if you find you'lre making progress. For producing experimental music, free-form noise, etc., it may be the only one you'ld ever need.