Tannerin
The tannerin or electrotheremin is an electrical musical instrument . It is a Theremin with simplified operation, the worldwide fame through the hit single Good Vibrations of the Beach Boys became. The Beach Boys used the instrument again for the songs Wild Honey and I Just Wasn't Made for These Times . In the following decades it was used in several television series in the soundtrack.
The Tannerin was developed by the studio musicians Paul Tanner and Bob Whitsell in 1958 and adapted for use in the studio . There the musician could change the pitch by moving a controller back and forth on a surface. In contrast to the theremin, the tannerin produces an almost pure sine tone . The volume could be adjusted by a button on the side of the device. After the Beach Boys had used this instrument and musicians for the studio recordings of Good Vibrations , they needed another device that the guitarists could play live on tour. Walter Sears and Robert Moog came up with the idea of providing the existing controller with an additional tape on which they painted the respective corresponding note. This later developed into a pseudo-keyboard on which the piano keys are painted / glued in front of the controller.
literature
- Trevor Pinch, Frank Trocco: Analog Days. The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-674-01617-3 , pp. 87-88.