For a cultural project I'm trying to nurture, it would be very, very useful to have a design for an inexpensive, easy-to-build Theremin. A vacuum-tube model would be attractive and attention getting, but probably much less practical than one built from discreet components. On the other hand, reasonable fidelity in range of pitch and reproducing the characteristic sound quality and performance technique of Theremin's original RCA design would be very desirable.

There are a lot of DIY Theremin projects and kits out there. Make did a round up (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/04/theremin_kits.html) in 2007, but you can google for more recent stuff.

Thanks very much Lenore for the links to the theremin resources. You're right, of course, that there's been a sort of recent resurgence of interest in the theremin and now I see that there are a number of possibilities that might suit my purposes, or come close.

On the other hand, I still think that a theremin designed with that special EMSL touch sounds like a great idea, particularly since many theremin kits that I've seen do not reproduce the RCA theremin's performance technique, which is an important characteristic that I'm hoping to implement.