Potentiometers

[uglyvw]

Not terribly exciting I don't guess, but I've had a couple of issues lately and was wondering what my good AGF peeps had to say. I've used several different makers of pots in the past for new wiring, old repairs, and such. Some were no names from the parts bin, most were Alpha, CTS, or Bourns. After using those, I kind of developed a liking for the Bourns pots. I like the tapers, the quality has always been there, and they seemed to be consistent. That said, lately I ordered some basic 500k full sized pots and some 500k push pull pots. The push pull pots felt like typical hight end Bourns quality, but the standard pots are really crap. They are very loose, not low friction loose, but worn out feeling, with even a little play in the shaft. They are stamped on the bottom. This is the first time I've gotten Bourns that were not consistently high end, even the dime sized ones I put in my 335 were really nice.

All that said, what pots do you all use and prefer?

[mickey]

Bourns, CTS & Alpha have always been of consistant quality in my experience.
Bourns being the best.
CTS a close second.
Alpha a distant third.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I haven't swapped enough to have a strong opinion, but have been good with all 3. I have to wonder whether it may be the shop you bought them from. Could it be they got factory seconds and didn't disclose that? Or maybe just a one-time fluke?

[Mossman]

As weird as it seems, I think somebody is counterfeiting Bourns pots. I bought 10 Bourns pots on ebay once, and not only did they feel crappy and loose, but about half of them didn't even work. They looked legit, but there's no way they were the real deal.

[mickey]

As weird as it seems, I think somebody is counterfeiting Bourns pots. I bought 10 Bourns pots on ebay once, and not only did they feel crappy and loose, but about half of them didn't even work. They looked legit, but there's no way they were the real deal.

I would expect counterfeit anything out of China these days, except maybe counterfeit Dolly Partons?

[Partscaster]

I use CTS, and often buy them from The Art of Tone (TAOT) online store. The guy there runs a small shop and I believe he orders directly from CTS, as he does offer his own TAOT stamped CTS variety, amongst other regular CTS tolerance options. Also offers good varieties of caps, knobs, wire, etc.

[mozz]

As weird as it seems, I think somebody is counterfeiting Bourns pots. I bought 10 Bourns pots on ebay once, and not only did they feel crappy and loose, but about half of them didn't even work. They looked legit, but there's no way they were the real deal.

Exactly. I know for a fact the fakes are out there. Most likely Ebay or Amazon but you never know what some guitar places are selling.

[uglyvw]

I use CTS, and often buy them from The Art of Tone (TAOT) online store. The guy there runs a small shop and I believe he orders directly from CTS, as he does offer his own TAOT stamped CTS variety, amongst other regular CTS tolerance options. Also offers good varieties of caps, knobs, wire, etc.

This is actually the shop on ebay where I bought these from, and they sure look legit, but I am not even going to wire them up. Low resistance turning is one thing, but these feel lousy.

[uglyvw]

Bourns, CTS & Alpha have always been of consistant quality in my experience.
Bourns being the best.
CTS a close second.
Alpha a distant third.

This has kind of been my ranking as well, and some CTS being better than others (I like the dimpled back versions).

[idiotsdelight]

Dis-assemble one and look at the innards. Dont know what you might find, but that's where I'd start.

I buy whatever I can get a good price on. I have a stash of all.

[Mossman]

As weird as it seems, I think somebody is counterfeiting Bourns pots. I bought 10 Bourns pots on ebay once, and not only did they feel crappy and loose, but about half of them didn't even work. They looked legit, but there's no way they were the real deal.

I would expect counterfeit anything out of China these days, except maybe counterfeit Dolly Partons?

Yeah... Uh, wait a minute... what??

[Partscaster]

I use CTS, and often buy them from The Art of Tone (TAOT) online store. The guy there runs a small shop and I believe he orders directly from CTS, as he does offer his own TAOT stamped CTS variety, amongst other regular CTS tolerance options. Also offers good varieties of caps, knobs, wire, etc.

This is actually the shop on ebay where I bought these from, and they sure look legit, but I am not even going to wire them up. Low resistance turning is one thing, but these feel lousy.

Contact Bill at TheArtofTone, his web site has contact info. He should help you out. Maybe Bourne's has some slack factory product these covid days. Bill should give you an answer, He's been good and prompt with me when some order material was mixed up.

[uglyvw]

I use CTS, and often buy them from The Art of Tone (TAOT) online store. The guy there runs a small shop and I believe he orders directly from CTS, as he does offer his own TAOT stamped CTS variety, amongst other regular CTS tolerance options. Also offers good varieties of caps, knobs, wire, etc.

This is actually the shop on ebay where I bought these from, and they sure look legit, but I am not even going to wire them up. Low resistance turning is one thing, but these feel lousy.

Contact Bill at TheArtofTone, his web site has contact info. He should help you out. Maybe Bourne's has some slack factory product these covid days. Bill should give you an answer, He's been good and prompt with me when some order material was mixed up.

I did contact them and he seems like he runs a reputable place. He gave me some information that does help. I did not realize that the standard 500k and 250k bourns pots come in two varieties. The pro audio pots are most likely what i've been using in the past, the regular audio pots are considered "low resistance" which are the ones that feel like junk to me. I went ahead and wired two up as volume pots and one did work, just felt sloppy. The other one worked, but at full wide open volume would cut out. They both actually have a little bit of wobble between the shaft and the sleeve. I guess I just need to pay closer attention to what i'm ordering. I've used bourns pots for many years and never even knew there were two varieties, maybe I've just been lucky in my purchasing.

I certainly am not knocking the seller, as he they shipped quickly, has prompt responses, and apparently do also sell the pro audio version of these pots as well.

It looks like the push pull pots only come in the higher end variety, those feel great, like all the ones i've had in the past.

[honyock]

All of the good stuff at places I use to buy electronics parts are out of stock on the Bourns pots I like and bought in the past.

Newark, Allied Electronics, Etc. Luckily I bought more than I needed a while back (hard to believe it was 2013...) realizing I would forever be buying cheap guitars and fixing up things.

My $60 bought me more than enough stuff to do every cheap strat and tele I have owned since.

Looking now prices aren't so good on this stuff even if it were in stock...

[Mossman]

I know that there are Asian-made CTS pots, though most ebay/Amazon sellers aren't very forthcoming about the country of origin in their listings. I've bought CTS pots that didn't seem quite as nice as I was used to, but shortly thereafter, I came upon an electronics parts store that carried both Asian and US CTS pots, and figured I must have gotten the import variety. I don't think they were counterfeits. They weren't crap, they just weren't as smooth and solid-feeling as you would expect. I still used them, and they work fine.

I wonder if Bourns has parts manufactured overseas as well, and those low resistance pots are imports?

[LancerTheGreat]

Speaking of, anywhere decent to order bourns or cts pots from?
Also need to get a locking nut, I'll have to remeasure or try and find some specs online to figure out what size.
And files, plus whatever else I need to finish the frets on the neck of the kit guitar I built ~6 years ago.

[andrewsrea]

For guitars, I was on a Bourns streak for about 10 years and found their quality dropped. They were breaking at the lug rivet and would become intermittent. The Bourns replacements I was getting had an additional problem - their tapers were becoming more like a linear-taper, which I do not prefer. I like standard audio-taper CTS, but usually lube them to loosen them up. Bourns are now tied for 3rd place with Alpha.

Alpha's seem fine for my pedal builds.

I currently love Emerson CTS, which I believe are manufactured by CTS for Emerson and to the Emerson specs. They have a little more tension in the 'action' than Bourns and are like a worn-in CTS as far as rotation tension. I find the taper very conducive to a Kinman treble bleed for my style, which is '7' on the guitar volume for dirty rhythm, '9' to '10' for solos and lower volumes for clean tones.

I don't like RS Guitarworks 'Superpots.' They are stiff and the 'audio-taper' are really linear.

[mozz]

One of those 3 companies make a few different tension or torque models. I do not like the easy to turn models. Seems I bump them a lot and prefer the ones with tight tolerances and heavy grease. For a while I was buying Taiwan made full sized pots by some unknown company on eBay but it seems none are listed recently.

[Chocol8]

I really need to place an order for more pots. I think with the new marijuana law in NY, I am allowed to keep up to 5lbs worth of pots in my home. At least that’s what I am telling my wife!

Someone posted above about Asian vs American versions and I just want to point out that that is probably not a country of origin thing. There are two different standards for splined shafts on pots and knobs to fit them. The Asian vs US label offered by some dealers is likely the spline spacing. You want to get this correct or you will likely end up buying new knobs!

[Rollin Hand]

I like CTS and Alpha. CTS is my preference of the two. My lone Bourns experience was with a low resistance and I didn't like it much.

Of course I bought Fender pots for Project: Predator, but I ended up leaving the Peavey pots in out of convenience -- the less soldering I do the better for all concerned.

[Mossman]

I really need to place an order for more pots. I think with the new marijuana law in NY, I am allowed to keep up to 5lbs worth of pots in my home. At least that’s what I am telling my wife!

Someone posted above about Asian vs American versions and I just want to point out that that is probably not a country of origin thing. There are two different standards for splined shafts on pots and knobs to fit them. The Asian vs US label offered by some dealers is likely the spline spacing. You want to get this correct or you will likely end up buying new knobs!

You could be correct, but usually they differentiate by calling them either "course spline" or "fine spline". I can't remember where I saw it, but they were referred to on the website as "Asian CTS". I don't think they would have called them that if they simply fit Asian-made knobs. I think it was a general supplier too, not a guitar-specific retailer. But I could be mistaken. My memory is kind of vague about it to be honest.