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Building a Reproduction Moog Melodia Theremin

Posted on by by Posted in DIY, Electronics, Odd, Odd, Strange, & Curious, Restorations, Strange, Theremins, Vintage

My completed reproduction of a 1960s-era Moog Melodia. Glamour shot by Becky Hart.

This model lacks the traditional volume loop antenna on the left side, instead using a plate of metal on the end of the cabinet (not visible here).

Why Build a Circa 1965 Theremin?

I don’t know why I became fascinated with the Moog Melodia enough to want to build a reproduction.  The physical appearance is very basic, and it has no timbre control, so you’re stuck with a single voice.  Part of the motivation for the project is that I enjoy doing restorations and have a great appreciation for the craftsmanship of antique and vintage items.  I also enjoy building from scratch, especially if the project has a nice mix of woodwork, metalwork, and electronics. With the Moog Melodia I get all of these.  I had no expectation going in that this was going to be a great theremin, but in the end it turned out to be better than expected, and it was fun to try to build something different.

I think the fact that the Melodia is well-documented helped to keep the scope of the project down to something that I was willing to do alongside other projects that are also competing for time.… Read the rest


A Homemade Progressive/Universal RF Coil Winder

Posted on by by Posted in DIY, Electronics, Odd, Strange, & Curious, Theremins, Tools & Machinery, Vintage

The mostly-completed progressive/universal coil winder. The universal portion is my adaptation of Morris Coilmaster design with some added features. The progressive feature is new. All parts were designed in Fusion360 with the exception of the very nice 3-jaw chucks posted by user “mdkendall” on Thingiverse.com (link in text below).

A few years ago I became fascinated (obsessed) with theremins to the point that I’ve ignored maintenance of this website and I’m pretty sure I can’t even play guitar anymore.  The theremin is a miserably difficult instrument to play, but in the early morning hours when no one else can hear me I find a deep satisfaction in playing a musical instrument that almost seems to be connected directly to my brain.  If you can think of a melody you can play it (how well you can play it is another matter).

It’s strange that I resisted the theremin for so long in my younger years.  It is a natural fit in that it is an electronic instrument that uses radio frequencies and oscillators and filters, all stuff that I’ve been into since my pre-teen years.  The theremin story is for another time, though.  This project, a coil winder that allows one to make high-frequency coils with winding patterns that are impossible to do by hand, is actually a side task for a theremin construction project that I’ve managed to stretch out for over a year now. … Read the rest


The Mystery of the Paulding Light

Posted on by by Posted in Odd, Strange, & Curious

A Good Scary Story Is Much More Fun Than a Simple Explanation

Picture of the Paulding Light taken on November 3, 2007 as it floats slowly downward.
Attribution: Flivver 99 at en.wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-3.0

A Personal Encounter

The Paulding Light, also known as the Dog Meadow Light, was a spooky local tale that still lives on in northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan where it is located.  Stories that accompany the legend vary, but the particular one that we had been hearing at the time involved the death of a railroad brakeman whose spirit continued to roam the tracks at night, eternally waving his lantern in an effort to warn the oncoming train of an impending collision that would also take his life.

It was around 1970 and I was in high school when this story became a fun topic of conversation in my hometown in northern Wisconsin.  I don’t remember if I first heard of it through school or on the local radio station, but my older neighbor had just acquired his driver’s license and a beater first car, and investigating the light would be the closest thing to an adventure that we would be likely to find in that neck of the woods. … Read the rest

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