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1954 Theremin Model 201 Robert Moog's first commercial product. At age 19 he built approximately 20 of these instruments out of his home in Flushing, New York. "Shortly after vacuum-tube radios were first put into production, experimenters began to look for other uses for vacuum-tube circuits. One of the early developments was a unique musical instrument, played by the free movement of the performer's hands in the space surrounding the instrument. This device, named the "Theremin" after its inventor, Leon Theramine, attracted widespread attention. Today, Theremin music is still quite popular, despite the fact that no new instruments have been built commercially for about twenty-five years..." From "The Theremin by Robert Moog, K2AMH" as printed in "Radio & Television News", January, 1954. |
 
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1954 Theremin Models 305 & 351 Following the Model 201, Models 305 and 351 displayed the new R.A.Moog "vacuum tube" logo. "The first truly modern adaption of Leon Theremin's original instrument. The model 351 is basically identical with model 305. However in the model 351 two features have been added which greatly expand the versatility of the instrument. The first of these is the OVERTONE SELECTOR, a switch with which the performer may inject one of three natural (not tempered) overtones into the fundamental tone. These overtones do not appear as separate notes, but rather give the fundamental tone a quality remarkably similar to the vowel sounds made by the human voice. This is a feature not found in any other musical instrument, and is made possible by the advanced design developed by the R.A.Moog Co. To the left of the OVERTONE SELECTOR... is the SYNTHETIC FORMAT, a switch which enables the performer to select one of four basically different timbres." From "THE R.A.MOOG THEREMIN" Sales Brochure, 1954. 
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