The Rolling Stones and the oscillator.
For reference here is a quick demo of an old oscillator. Every professional studio had them for tape machine calibration etc etc.
Reference to the Stones receiving oscillators from Vox can be found in issue 47 of Beat Instrumental magazine.
"Recent visitors to Jennings factory in Dartford were Brian Jones and Keith Richard. They went there to try out some new electronic effects and were so impressed, that they said they would use them on their next British tour. Jennings have also made some electronic oscillators, which the Stones have taken away to experiment with. Some of these sounds will be used on their next record session.All these new devices will be on display at the Frankfurt Trade Fair, and will be on sale in England soon after. As yet, they are un-named."
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There are 4 uses of an oscillator on Rolling Stones recordings from 1966 and 1967.
There is brief use of an oscillator during the intro for Have You Seen Your Mother:
An oscillator was used throughout Please Go Home:
An oscillator was used for the ''Cosmic Christmas' part on Their Satanic Majesties Request album:
An oscillator was used briefly (with tape speed and tape echo) for effects on 2000 Light Years From Home. The oscillator is audible from 2:08 - 2:19 and 2:25 - 2:31:
These uses of an oscillator are often mis-credited as being a Theremin, a Moog, and on occasion, a Mellotron*
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As for who played the oscillators on these Stones recordings, perhaps the answer is in this quote...
"If it sounds weird, it's Brian." - Andrew Loog Oldham.
Additionally, there is also Brian stating this in 1968.
"I'm very hung-up on electronic music at present. If there is not room to include it on our album I would like to do something separately." - Brian Jones.
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*For clarity, Brian did of course play Mellotron, using the 3 violins string sound, on 2000 Light Years From Home. Here is his isolated Mellotron playing without the oscillator effects etc:
