Who makes the best pots?

J

j2b4o

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2,860
Been looking and mostly just see Gibson and no name pots so what type of pots do you amp gurus use for vol and tone? Do you use different tules for vol and tone? And where would you reccommend I but them. Thanks a bunch guys.
 
J

j2b4o

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2,860
I keep having these worries that guitar pots are different than amp pots somehow even though it's rediculous cause all it is is a resister anyways.

Thanks will checkout cts
 
fishlog

fishlog

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2,230
I think you will find that CTS virtually makes every pot out there. I know Ernie Ball's pots are manufactured by CTS and the ones I bought from Acme Guitar Works were all CTS. I guess the ones I bought from Acme were built to higher tollerances, it was noticable as you rolled the tone knobs. I hate the cheap pots that you roll the tone and it just seems to go from off to on at about 7.
 
T

teleamp

Senior Member
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Lot's of high dollar amps use Alpha, they have metal shafts and have a "good" feel when turning.

tubesandmore.com has CTS and Alpha... get one of each and see which you prefer the feel of.

On the high end, (MI use) PEC makes some nice ones, but the Alpha's actually feel better. And your right, they're just variable resistors. westlabs.com has the PEC IIRC.

If your going to be soldering anything to the backs, I'd get the Alpha... no nasty coatings to deal with. The CTS will need some sanding to get to bare metal. The PEC's are stainless and and you would have to use lots of heat and silver solder.
 
J

j2b4o

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2,860
teleamp said:
Lot's of high dollar amps use Alpha, they have metal shafts and have a "good" feel when turning.

tubesandmore.com has CTS and Alpha... get one of each and see which you prefer the feel of.

On the high end, (MI use) PEC makes some nice ones, but the Alpha's actually feel better. And your right, they're just variable resistors. westlabs.com has the PEC IIRC.
Click to expand...

does 500k 250k or 1meg allow the most gain or does it not matter?
 
T

teleamp

Senior Member
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3,478
j2b4o said:
does 500k 250k or 1meg allow the most gain or does it not matter?
Click to expand...


For a volume control on an amp, most schematics I have seen use a 1 meg audio taper pot, some of the older amps (Watkins Dominator, use a 500K audio taper). I have never seen a 250K used for a volume control. (in an amp)

To get the most gain out of a preamp, eliminate the volume pot altogether and use the guitars volume control. Just like when you chain many pedals and have "tone suck" and it gets better as you eliminate stuff from the chain... preamps act the same way, the more stuff a signal goes through takes away.

But, to answer your question, I think a 1 meg audio taper would be your best bet.

Anything more than Alpha, or CTS is a waste of money. IMHO
 
G

Gtowngearhead

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840
Is there a best? It's too subjective to say. And don't pay the money for an Alessandro pot... Use the 80/20 rule. Or somewhere close to there...
 
J

j2b4o

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2,860
AJ Love said:
Who makes the best pot? The dudes up in British Columbia
Click to expand...

Lol. Please that bc bud doesn't even touch me,Cali for the win.


But Back to the topic at hand.....
I have herd that log pots are best for volume and linear is better for tone is this your experience? I like my tone knobs to have the highest sensitivity so I have a broader spectrum of tones to choose from. Thanks
 
B

bludotone

Member
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259
Jim over at WCR has some "superpots" he had made by CTS that have a great taper, the question is really how do you want the pot to react, otherwise it's just a variable resistor- For guitars I try and stay away from the Clarostat/PEC sealed type because you can't solder to the back.
 
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