Fender/CTS 1 meg J taper pots

[Charlie Wilson]

Hello,
After waiting 4 months, I finally received a small batch of 1 meg J taper pots from Fender and was happy until I measured them. They all measure right around 850k. I have never seen a pot from Fender that measures that low (new or vintage). Fender told me that they are 20% tolerance.
CW

[martin manning]

Fender told me that they are 20% tolerance.

So they're within about 15%. You got a problem wi' dat?

[Charlie Wilson]

I guess the question would be, would you use an 850k pot in a Dumble circuit?
CW

[martin manning]

I don't know if HAD would accept that variation or not. I recall one of the layouts has a 230k pot, which is presumably a 250k nominal. Perhaps it would depend upon the specific location of the pot, and then the difference might be nullified by the setting (if it's a tone control), or some other tweak to get the end result you are after.

[Charlie Wilson]

My goal was to get some 30% taper 1 meg pots to use for volume controls. I did also get some 250k J taper (30%) from Fender which I assume are also 20% tolerance and they measured almost dead on 250k.
CW

[martin manning]

Not a big deal if they are for volume controls IMO. If there is a bright cap then maybe that would want to be a little bigger.

[glasman]

At 15 to 20% low, I would expect that you will loss some low end responce.

FWIW, I buy 30% taper pots in lots of 1000, every box of 100 has between 20 to 30 that fall outside my build spec of 5%. That said, I nver see them below about 890k or so. Those that fall out I use for other non-critical purpioses.

Gary

[Charlie Wilson]

Gary, so you order them with a 5% tolerance? I just think that 20% is a bit out of line for a company like Fender. Well at least they are all consistently low by the same amount.
CW

[glasman]

Gary, so you order them with a 5% tolerance? I just think that 20% is a bit out of line for a company like Fender. Well at least they are all consistently low by the same amount.
CW

No, my vendor would only guarantee, 20% on a 1MA, but at the price per 1000 pieces, I can affford to toss a few out into the "other" use bin. The out of spec pots make a nice TBX style pot for HF taper contrrols etc.

[Charlie Wilson]

Maybe CTS would only guarantee 20% for 1meg for Fender. I guess that was the best they could do.
CW

[glasman]

Maybe CTS would only guarantee 20% for 1meg for Fender. I guess that was the best they could do.
CW

Not sure, tried to deal with CTS once a couple of years ago. Silly money for a simple 1M 30% taper with a push pull switch. Gave up and went overseas.

Funny thing is, if you are clever, you can grapft an Alpha element into a CTS housing..... Doesn't take much re-engineering.

Gary