Modern day pots suck

[GlideOn]

Seriously.

I have a combination of CTS, Burns push-pull pots that I've had in my amp less than 2 months and they're already failing.

They've loosened from their encasing, turn around even though fully tightened, they're skipping their traces inside and have intermittent jumps in volume and tone functions. They can't be using these for mass manufacturing.

Meanwhile all the other vintage pots are still going strong, 40+ years. Peaveys are decent too I suppose.

Why can't we make reliable and quality pots anymore?

[xtian]

Huh. Never had an issue with a modern Alpha.

[sluckey]

Huh. Never had an issue with a modern Alpha.

Ditto.

[Mac Dillard]

Ditto

[Reeltarded]

Alphas are inexpensive and I have only ever killed one by soldering it 100012 times.

All other brands are not preferred!

[jabguit]

In amps I am switching to Alpha, as not only are they as reliable as CTS (or more so), but I prefer the feel/torque of Alphas. Plus they're less than half the price. BTW both CTS and Alpha are made in Taiwan.

In guitars I continue to use CTS, albeit usually special order like Mojotone or RS Guitars' offerings with tighter tolerances. Got some recent Centralab pots that aren't too bad for guitars, either. I'm sure they're made in a factory not far from the previously mentioned....


cheers,

[Stevem]

To use any new Carbon trace type pot without internally lubing it up is insane to me, especially if the pot is going in a guitar which means it will see tons more rotations in its lifetime.

Whenever I flush out a used pot I lube it also.

With a used pot that has been made with grease inside to lube its rotation qualities this lube can be a problem.

Over time it collects the worn off carbon dust from the resistance traces and if you do not flush it out really really well then it will still crackle and have static.

Many times on a repair or especially on a restoration I will remove the pot and disassemble it to fully clean it out and then lube it.

On full size pots if the trace has become fully worn in a spot and become open many times you can bend the rotation wiper over enough to have it ride once again on unused / new resistance trace.

[GlideOn]

Alphas I've had better fortune with; never had skipped inside but had the occasional tab or wiper break off. It's very hard to get some of the pots I need from them like the elusive Dual Ganged 1M/1M not available stateside.

Bourns and CTS I've had specific issues with. Their push pulls are absolute garbage. Their casings come apart and they eventually start skipping their tracks inside after so many pushes and pulls.

I had never heard of Bourns until recent years, they seemed decent enough for guitar work and had a smooth mechanical feel to them. They seems to be dominant offering as far as push-pulls go for whatever reason. However they are not built to last. Certainly not in an amplifier.

I cannot imagine any major amp manufacturer using them as-is. They have to be special bulk ordering to have them made to their tolerances.

Why can't the common man get a hold of these special tolerances pots?

[lonote]

After several 1M A CTS failures brand-new, I switched to Alphas too, as exclusively as possible anyway. There are still some of the odd reverse-taper values that you have to use another brand but grudgingly. Also heard from others that had similar issues with the 1M A CTS.

...like the elusive Dual Ganged 1M/1M not available stateside.

I like using concentric pots in some instances to save real estate & have used a few of these smaller Alphas in amps, with good results. Not sure if there is a ganged 1M version.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275501523023?var=576361180104

[GlideOn]

There is, but it is mini and hard to use inside of an amplifier as the wipers are very close together. The full size Concentric 1M is not available stateside. Europe, yes but you pay about $50 USD to get it.

I use them to sum up channels 1 and 2 so I can use a post-phase Master on the now-open channel 2 volume hole. It is important that they are the 1M log/audio value too. I dislike drilling holes in old amps so at least the ability to sum up and stack controls is very useful in case I want to reverse to stock.

But still no real reliable 250k/250k dual with a push/pull function. You'd have to be lucky and find and old Mallory or Dynaco unit under a rock of an old eBay listing. I have found 8k Mallory concentric which was cool to use as variable NFB and Presence in a Silverface Twin; put in place of the Ground Switch.

I tried the CTS 1MA SPST push pulls too and they are absolute garbage.

I love to have stealth features on my amps that add a great deal of usability and versatility to an amplifier or guitar. I just wish they were built better so my hard work meant something.

[R.G.]

I had never heard of Bourns until recent years, they seemed decent enough for guitar work and had a smooth mechanical feel to them. They seems to be dominant offering as far as push-pulls go for whatever reason. However they are not built to last. Certainly not in an amplifier.

Bourns is an interesting story. If it's not just a purchased trademark now, like "RCA", "Sylvania" and so on from the 60s and 70s, it was a manufacturer of high quality trimmers, multi-turn pots and so on, and quite expensive. They missed the first wave of offshore manufacturing, and I suspect they came remarkably close to bankruptcy. It wasn't until the last decade or so that Bourns got turned around with offshore manufacturing to get into the low cost wave.

In the 1990s, I had this internal maxim that there were only two kinds of (USA tech-) companies: those that were going to offshore manufacturing, and those that were going broke. The offshoring wave nearly destroyed the high-quality, high-cost USA tech companies. Those that still exist are dramatically different places now than they were. It's only now, after what, three decades or more, that USA manufacturing is coming to terms and getting competitive again. Reality is ugly business.

[danman]

These pots cost a bit more and they do not offer a push/pull but for all other use, they have performed very well for me. They work especially well for volume controls because they have a very smooth and even audio taper. They are the only pots that I use now for volume/gain controls.
https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/p ... =2341a3344

[TUBEDUDE]

Yeah, pots now suck. Seems like just the last 5 years or so I've had more bad pots than ever. The Alphas are not immune. I just had to replace a volume control in an amp and the volume control in my Strat. And those switch/pots don't seem to last long before intermittent behavior. Thinner conductive deposit, weaker wiper metal? I don't know which cost saving measure is making these things useless but I'm ready to abandon them for sliding faders. Time for the manufacturers to wake up.

[M Fowler]

I agree pots are a problem. I like CTS over Alpha.

For my GT120 Matamp, DR201 200w, and meatsmoke type 300w builds I used Tocos pots.

Mark