Editing Electro-Theremin (section)

==Background==
The instrument was custom-built at Tanner's request. Tanner appreciated the theremin's sound, but wanted greater control of pitch and attack. The Electro-Theremin uses mechanical controls, a long slide bar for the pitch (analogous to the slide of the trombone that was Tanner's main instrument) and a knob to adjust volume. This contrasts with the hand movements in space that formed the original theremin's signal feature. The Electro-Theremin also produces a slightly less complex timbre than the original. This is not due to the nature of the instrument, but due to the intentional harmonic generation in the output of the theremin, which Tanner did not do.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}

Tanner played it for the 1958 [[LP record]] ''Music for Heavenly Bodies'', the first full-length album featuring the instrument,<ref>{{Cite web |title=MUSIC FOR HEAVENLY BODIES |work=The Paul Tanner Electro-Theremin Page / Discography |url=http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/4611/MFHBnotes.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020429091105/http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/4611/MFHBnotes.html |archive-date=2002-04-29}}</ref> and played it subsequently on several [[television]] and movie soundtracks, including [[George Greeley]]'s theme for the 1960s TV series ''[[My Favorite Martian]]'' and on an LP record titled ''Music from Outer Space''.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}

Tanner played his Electro-Theremin on four songs by [[The Beach Boys]]: "[[I Just Wasn't Made for These Times]]", "[[Good Vibrations]]", "[[Wild Honey (The Beach Boys song)|Wild Honey]]" and a studio outtake written by [[Dennis Wilson]] known as "Tune L". The instrument used in "Good Vibrations" was a [[Heathkit]] tube-type audio oscillator coupled to a mechanical action that allowed the player to mark notes along a ruler-type scale where notes could be located quickly and precisely.{{Citation needed|date=May 2016}}

Tanner's prototype Electro-Theremin appears to have been the only one made. In the late 1960s, Tanner donated or sold the instrument to a hospital to use for audiology work, because he believed that newer keyboard synthesizers made it obsolete.<ref>[http://www.electrotheremin.com/etfaq.htm The Paul Tanner Electro-Theremin&nbsp;— David S. Miller]</ref>