Bourns Pots

[Structo]

holy crap those adapters are $2.50 each!
More than I paid for the pot!

I wonder if a guy could find that brass tubing at a hobby store?

[dimitris]

No .It's 2.5 for five adapters.

[Structo]

Doh!

Missed the small print as usual.....

[ApexJr.]

FYL, I found that UTech also has an office in Calgary, so I'll try that. Thanx.

Also, +1 on Apex Jr.'s Bourns pots friction level, very nice I thought and yes, higher than A-B, more like PEC.

Just saw this thread...
From what I've been told the Bourns pots AES/CE carries are for
guitars whereas mine are made for guitar amps.
As Dave mentioned these have a much better feel than the Alpha's.
and there friction is also quite a bit better.
I should have another shipment coming in about 6 weeks and along
with the values already listed on the website I am getting the 5K
everyone has asked for along with a 250K Linear too.

Steve @ Apex Jr.

[LPSGME]

Beside the feel of the pot, what about it's affect on the sound. If there is any, would that not be a greater concern?

I recall some recent discussion about different brands, as it prompted me to swap out my Alphas for some old Fender CTS pots I had laying around.

At first the CTS seemed to produce a nicer and smoother tone. But then it seemed too smooth. That may have been due to changing some JJ's to RCA's, but I don't recall.

In the end (with the RCAs) I opted to put back the Alphas except for the Bass pot.

[Structo]

Steve @ Apex Jr. hooked me up with some sweet pots for my upcoming 100w build. He mailed it Monday and I got it today.
I got two NOS Allen Bradley 1M pots for Volume and Master, right on!

His Bourns pots truly are of a different caliber than the ones I got from AES.
They have nice friction to the rotation and just simply feel better.

I got a nice CTS push/pull switched 250K for my mid pot so I can put the mid boost on that.
So I will change the toggle switch for Mid boost to somethings else.
Perhaps Deep or something else.

I have a PEC 250K for my treble pot.
And an NOS AB 2K5 pot for the presence.

I'm getting excited about this build.
Now I am just waiting for my order from Watts that will have the blank G10F4 boards and the tube sockets.

I went to Lowes yesterday to buy some screws and lock nuts.
I decided to go with stainless steel on all those because the regular screws and nuts are made in China now and are very soft mild steel that do not perform well.
Man, that stainless stuff adds up fast in cost.

[jhaas]

Thanks for the report on the ApexJr. bourns pots. My next batch will come from Steve.

That stainless hardware does add up. Once you figure out the sizes you need that will remain consistent from amp-to-amp, you can get boxes of 100 from either McMaster-Carr or Grainger and save yourself quite a bit.

[butwhatif]

mcmaster-carr has tons of stuff---

[roknroll]

I've been using the Bourns pots for a few months now, purchased from CEDist. I have installed quite a few of them in my own and customers' guitars that like to use the volume pot for swells. The lack of friction on these pots is absolutely fabulous! The low torque required to turn these babies is just what the volume swell doctor ordered.
While I would not opinionate for lack of true data on how long they last, I did have one sort of failure in my own guitar. After less than six months the pot became scratchy which I solved with Deoxit. I do admit however that I use volume swells on a daily basis being I am a Jeff Beck wannabee.
Some of my customers had concerns over the split shaft that the knobs would become loose over time on guitars whose knobs have set screws. I solved that issue by cutting a small piece out of a #8 or maybe #10 IIRC flat washer and inserted it in the split.
Overall I have had no complaints. I know that this thread was really about use in amplifiers but if you think about it, the use of these pots in guitars in terms of reliability or wear is useful info.
Regards JK

[M Fowler]

Bourns pots are not smooth by any means they are stiff feeling. I got mine from Steve Apexjr and used them in many projects.

I currently run CTS from Mojo and Alpa from Mojo. Changed out the Bourns guitar pots to the generiac sealed pots.

[Structo]

There is apparently two different spec'd pots out there made by Bourns.
The ones I got from AES felt like the shaft was free wheeling inside with no friction.
That would work well on a guitar as mentioned.

But on an amp, I want some friction when I turn the knob and the ones I got from Apex Jr. have a nice feel to them, similar to the Alpha's I have used before.
I wanted to try the Bourns to see if I like them better than Alpha's but since I ended up with mostly NOS pots, the only Bourns I have for this amp are the two 100K and the 500K bass pot.

[jhaas]

Not all Bourns pots have the torque spec. Some are very smooth, some are not.

Refer to this:
http://www.bourns.com/proaudio/pamm.aspx

They have guitar pot (low torque) and amp pots (med. or high torque).

From what I can tell, AES/CEDist sells guitar pots, from the looks it would be the PDB241-GTR series.

ApexJr. sell the amp pots, maybe PDA-24 but that's just a guess.

[mlp-mx6]

Bourns pots are not smooth by any means they are stiff feeling. I got mine from Steve Apexjr and used them in many projects.

I currently run CTS from Mojo and Alpa from Mojo. Changed out the Bourns guitar pots to the generiac sealed pots.

The pots from Apex are relatively high-friction. Apparently (I have no experience with these) the ones from CEDist are relatively low-friction. Be sure we're talking about the same things.

[Gaz]

I wanted to get some Bourns from Apex, but I specifically needed ones with 3/8" long bushings (not to be confused with diameter) for thick chassis and faceplates. The only ones I could find were the Bourns from CE/AES, which have a longer bushing. Does anyone know of any other pots with 3/8" long bushings???

The low-friction does not bother me at all, and passive control on a guitar amp aren't exactly precise, you know.

It's funny, I haven't heard anyone mention what happens when you spray lubricant/cleaner into an Alpha pot...they get nearly frictionless, just like the CE/AES Bourns. As far as I'm concerned, the friction from the Alphas just comes from that tacky crap you can feel on the outside of the pot. Know what I'm talking about?

I also like the 'slow' 10% taper of the Bourns, which helps with the bassy-heavy FMV tonestack (with 1M bass pot), and giving an impression of 'headroom' on the volume control.

[jhaas]

This bourns pot datasheet indicates that the bushing is .374" long, if you can do without that last .001"...

http://www.bourns.com/data/global/pdfs/PDA24.pdf

Apex Jr.-Steve, if you see this can you confirm the Bourns part number of the pots you sell?

Edit:
It looks like Mouser has just started to carry them. Here is the part number of the 500K Audio pot with 1/4" solid shaft, and a data sheet indicating that the bushing is .374" long:
652-PDA241SRT02504A2
Most of them appear to be "on order", but hopefully that's because they've just started carrying them.