stupid question about pots (n00b alarm)

[flood]

not trying to win brownie points through sycophancy, but for a couple of weeks "buy american" kept ringing in my head....

back story: after a lot of urging and pestering, i've finally decided to stop mulling and give in to demands that i use my questionable skills to make my hobby pay for itself, and do a small production run of 5W and 18W amps.

so i figured that i simply couldn't use the stuff available on the local market. i initially approached alpha USA (http://www.alphapotentiometers.net/) directly, and as expected, i was told that i would have to approach a distributor or order 1000 pieces of each value... fair enough. procrastination. finally called up AES today and asked them whether their 24mm pots were america or taiwan.... the sales chap was a friendly young man who was unsure, and told me that they were indeed taiwanese. for $1.40, that was the answer i expected...

now i'm a bit confused (n00b is as n00b does) - does alpha USA outsource (possibly just the 24mm pots we all know and love) to alpha taiwan? is it a subsidiary of some sort? i can't recall having seen alpha pots explicitly marketed as being "Alpha USA", and the knowledge gained on this thread all seems to point to outsourcing: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-tech/14 ... alpha.html

am i obsessing? while i would certainly prefer to buy american, i have to keep in mind that i'm designing inexpensive amps for people on a budget, and cannot stick $2+ pots in there cost effectively. am i fine buying alpha taiwan?

thanks to all in advance.

[M Fowler]

Well flood your trying and all the way from India too.

I look at the back of Bourns pots and they say rebuilt in Mexico.
I am quite sure the current stock of pots are being made not in the USA.

[flood]

i simply want to build an inexpensive product... not an inferior one!

i'm not averse to using taiwan-produced stuff if it meets quality requirements though. although i would definitely prefer to buy american or german, i have the lousy feeling that it's not being made there anymore. that being said, if you guys have had good experience with alpha taiwan, i'm not going to generalize, judge and dig myself a hole to gloat in. i'm very possibly overtly paranoid.

i like quality materials, not sniffing corks. the day you hear me say "the unique graduation in the taper bass pot on hendrix' plexi was the source of his mojo and the size of his khram" or "the rust on the pickguard screws on gilmour's black strat adds an undefinable and ethereal psychoacoustic quality to the dynamics of it's higher frequencies...." ....please, for the love of god, euthanize me!

do many of you use these pots and have decent experience with them? is there an american pot type you prefer, and could you point me to someone selling them at a reasonable price? or should i just accept the fact that bourns china, alpha taiwan and CTS china are in fact making very acceptable pots and get on with life and building them amps already?

apologies if i'm being a twerp.

[M Fowler]

Flood, I have just accepted that fact that I can't buy everything from my own country and that's life.

I am going to try some of MojoTone's pots they have made for them and see how they work out as well as some CTS pots they sell.

I build amps with faceplates so I tend to really like the Bourns pots as they are .375 long on the threaded shaft compared to the shorter Alpha and others. If I am using a powder coated and inked chassis like the ODS then Alpha is what I use.

[Tinkerer]

I've used Alpha, Mojo CTS and PEC. Don't like the feel of the PEC, or the fact that the shafts are too long and I have to shorten them with my Dremel.

Mojo CTS are good, but I prefer the Alpha to them all. The taper on the Mojo Audio pots is slightly slower than the Alpha, but the feel is the same. For the difference in price, the Alpha win hands down. I buy mine from AES or Hoffman amps depending on who has what in stock.

Hope this helps
Tinkerer.

[flood]

thanks all. i think i'll just get on with life and make a sales exec at AES really happy

seeing that practically everything around me is made in the far east or uses components that were made in the far east, i think the time to complain is long gone. or i'd better throw out my sony and insist that telefunken ressurects itself and builds me a 42" LCD TV.

[Cliff Schecht]

I'd prefer a 108" Nixie tube TV.

[flood]

I'd prefer a 108" Nixie tube TV.

now THAT is creative!

[Sonny ReVerb]

I'd prefer a 108" Nixie tube TV.

You wouldn't have to worry about heating your house

[flood]

The proverbial two birds with one stone.

However, chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

[M Fowler]

I just got done talking to customer service at AES they sent me a used PEC pot with soldering on the pins, no washer and no nut. They said they were sorry. I said for $9.95 per pot I better be getting new components.

Mark

[flood]

Hmmm. Returns from india could be a real PITA.

[Structo]

I just got done talking to customer service at AES they sent me a used PEC pot with soldering on the pins, no washer and no nut. They said they were sorry. I said for $9.95 per pot I better be getting new components.

Mark

Sheesh.
Last order I had with them they sent me 10 100K resistors instead of the 10 1Meg resistors I had ordered.
The power transformer I received also had some bad dents in the bell covers. (Do all companies throw their transformers around?)
I swear the last three transformers I have ordered have had dents in them and that was from three different suppliers.

I emailed them and told them of my concern about the transformer as well as the resistor mistake.
The guy that responded said I could return the tranny and that he would pop the resistors in the mail.

Well, as I stated in my email, I wasn't going to return the tranny, I just wanted them to be aware that there was a problem with my order because somebody else I knew had also received a dented tranny.

Anyway, they were also out of turrets that I ordered at the time.
About a week later I got the turrets but no resistors.......

Luckily I still had the resistors I needed in stock so it wasn't a deal breaker.

I just think in this economy that they would try their hardest to please customers because people will simply shop elsewhere if they aren't treated right.

[M Fowler]

Companies are only as good as the employees allow.

Get the employees that come in because they have to get a paycheck and hate the job. They don't put much effort into their work.

I have had my share of beatup transformers as well.

The last set I got from Triode Store the Magnetic Components Super Reverb 4 piece set was great. Nicely built set and $159 for all four.

40-18007-Fender# 125A9A, 22855
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