Looking for some (apparently) hard-to-find pots...

[cb]

First, as this is my first post, let me say thanks to Aron and all - this is a great board and much appreciated.

Now, down to business.

I found the typical stompbox mini pots at Small Bear BUT does anyone know where to get the 2-in-1 type of pot as on the Boss Metal Zone pedal EQ section? There's a smaller knob to control one pot and a larger knob (surrounds the smaller) to control the other pot - all in one unit.

While I'm fishing:
How about dual or even triple ganged mini pots? You know, one shaft turns all pots. Do such things exist?

Finally, I saw a pot on a boutique pedal that was a great space-saver. It did not have a typical knob, but had a knurled (plastic?) shaft that you turn directly that was about 5-7mm in diameter. Possibly this was some sort of trim pot - but the shaft must have been affixed to it somehow. Any ideas on where to find something like this?

Thanks!

[petemoore]

GL finding the right values and tapers...kinda hard to get out!
 Have you tried the usual places like Mouser and other large Elec. supply houses?

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I'd almost kill for a supply of concentric pots.. if you could get the knobs as well! (remarkably, pot manufacturers almost never supply knobs as well).
Alps make some mini dual gang pots.
And, most mini alps pots can be specced with a shaft with a knurled end, so you are just twisting the shaft, no knob. Minimum order of 2K or so parts, though
(used to use these in an 8 channel 1U rack mixer)

[sfr]

well, for dual gang pots, most any junker stereo or radio you find at a thrift store or yard sale will have some inside (just make sure it's not mono only - a lot of clock/radios are like this.  I'm always buying wierd junk radios and stereos for parts.   You live in a city or a college town, chances are you can find 'em on the side of the road on garbage day too.  

I have some really wierd parts I got from some salvage place's assorted potentiometer specials -  (Electronics Goldmine is one of the two online ones I look at, I can't remember the other)  at one point i had some 4-gang pots w/ 3 spst switches built in as well, and some pots that I haven't figured out what's going on because they're sealed, and have way too many pins coming off them. . .

But I haven't found any off the boss-style ones yr talking about, but maybe call places that do car audio repair in your area?  One place where I lived I called on a whim, and he sold me some wierd-value pots I needed out of his bin - and i've seen these types of pots more often in car audio.

[aron]

Even if you have the pots, where would you find the knobs???

[sfr]

action electronics (http://action-electronics.com) has dual-gang 16mm audio taper pots (i believe the one time I ordered some from them they didn't have the detents)  in a few different values.  Unlike some i've seen, they take up about the same amount of space as a regular 16mm pot by putting wafers on both sides of the wiper part instead of having two "chambers".   Sometimes you can get okay stereo pots at Radio Shack (it is RS though, so quality can be suspect) but they only have them in 100K.

Search under Potentiometers in the Electronics Goldmine cat. (http://goldmine-elec.com) and they have some quad 50k pots (with what I believe are the knurled plastic shafts yr talking about) as well as some other random dual pots.  

As far as dual-shaft, I believe the manufacturer yr looking for is TOCOS or something along those lines.

As far as knobs - again the dual shaft pots are mostly used in car stereos as far as i can tell, and I know i've seen replacement knobs at a car stereo place at least once.  Or just pull 'em off the ends of Boss pedals in the showroom at the music shop

I'm at work with nothing to do, (11 hours into a 12 hour night shift) hence my rambling on this subject.   I have a whole bunch of wierd pots at home, I'll take a look at what i've got when I get home, if I can find any of those dual shafts, I'll let you know.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The concentric car radio pots are still in the Alps catalog FWIW, but the shafts are pretty weird, not designed for guitar fx. Really need a Boss type pot!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

thanx sfr, www.tocos.com has concentric pots!

[smallbearelec]

As you know, I have several no-detent 16mm audio types in single-gang, as well as a couple of reverse-audio types. I don't stock dual-gang 16mm, but this Canadian company says they do:

http://www.mainelectronics.com

Getting the OEM stuff is a bitch, at best. I would be happy to order parts from Hoshino (Ibanez) and Roland/BOSS for resale, but I have not up to now been able to get a "parts dealer" agreement with either of them. I will ask again and let you know if I succeed.

SD

[smallbearelec]

I talked today with a guy a Roland who is willing to let me order spare parts there. So drop me a private message with model of the pedal, serial number and description of the part, and I'll try to get it for you.

Regards
Steve D