Pot poll: Alpha, CTS, or ...

[ian87]

not a real poll, but what brand of pots are best? have you ever had any just totally crap out on you?

(please refrain from lame weed jokes.... thanks in advance....   )

[petemoore]

The big ones for small ckts.
 if you're trying to fit alot of pots ina small box...
 Otherwise I have not had any problems with used new, or any other pots.
 all the pots marked 100k that I've measureed were less than 100k actula.
 These pots are in boxxed ckts and function perfectly well AFAICT.
 If ever you want to clean them the ones with access for a spray nozzle would be nice...
 Im just making a short story long...all them pots are jez fine IMO.
 Wah wah [or pot on a treadle] you want a wahwha [or heavy duty] one

[Samuel]

The blister packed ones I get from local stores...I guess they're CTS? I've become EXTREMELY frustrated with them. I'm only using Alpha from now on, cause I had TWO pot failures in my Big Muff using the genericy ones.

I was surprised to see that RadioShack pots are made by Alpha. That would be great if they didn't only stock 24mm pots with a shaft length of approximately 124 ft.

[Jim Jones]

That would be great if they didn't only stock 24mm pots with a shaft length of approximately 124 ft.

Hehehe!  Very true - be thankful Radio Shack still carries that stuff though...  Here in Canada that section of the store basically doesn't exist anymore.

Jim

[javacody]

shaft length of approximately 124 ft

Ha ha. One of my gripes about Radio Shack.

I love the small alpha pots for effects and the larger CTS pots for guitar guts.

[Roland]

If you hop over to the pete cornish thread I mention a good potentiometer with stainless steel case and steel shaft.

[ErikMiller]

The blister packed ones I get from local stores...I guess they're CTS? I've become EXTREMELY frustrated with them. I'm only using Alpha from now on, cause I had TWO pot failures in my Big Muff using the genericy ones.

Philmore is one company that packages the crappy ones. Since that is what Al Lasher's and Fry's stock, I was using them for prototyping, and have had several failures. Maybe I'm abusing them, but if I am, why haven't I lost a single Alpha?

All they are good for is the breadboard phase, where they get little action.

I don't think they're CTS, BTW.

I was surprised to see that RadioShack pots are made by Alpha. That would be great if they didn't only stock 24mm pots with a shaft length of approximately 124 ft.

LOL! Their selection of values is kinda sparse, too.

Can't LOL very long about Radio Shack, though. It saddens me when I think of what their parts selection has become.

[ExpAnonColin]

For the RS ones, I just take a hacksaw to them, and then it's no big deal.

I've been using mainly futurlec ones, which have been fine.

-Colin

[petemoore]

Round Here...
 Nice consumer reports question and answer thread !

[keninverse]

Omeg ECO PC16s I love the way these feel...like buttah
second spectrol 248 for places where you really need it (sometimes Bourns)
third...alpha/xicon

[Ansil]

alpha all the way

[brett]

I don't have many choices, so use 16mm Alphas mostly.  Only 2 failures.  One was due to cracked plastic/fibreglass platform that the lugs are mounted on.  Caused an intermittent fault that took AGES to find.  Other "failure" was weird - a high value pot (maybe 250kA) that had very low resistance (10kA?).  It seemed to work as a low value pot, so I figure that it was probably mis-labelled rather than poor manufacturing.

[Samuel]

Philmore is one company that packages the crappy ones. Since that is what Al Lasher's and Fry's stock, I was using them for prototyping, and have had several failures. Maybe I'm abusing them, but if I am, why haven't I lost a single Alpha?

Can't LOL very long about Radio Shack, though. It saddens me when I think of what their parts selection has become.

YES! Philmore, that's right. I used to live in San Diego, so I spent way too much time/money at Fry's. Note to Fry's: It rules that you stock a huge number of NTE components, but could you maybe possibly send an employee down that aisle twice a year to try and organize it?

I was so desperate for work while I lived there that I actually applied at Radio Shaque and went to one of their big group orientation thingees (they said I was going to interview  :x ). The woman running the thing said something in response to a question about electronics components like "Oh yeah we carry tons of little parts and things hahaha" and my eyes involuntarily rolled so far back in my head I thought I was going to get a concussion. She went on to say "Well we have special training seminars every couple of months, to make sure our employees are very knowledgeable." And another prospective employee raised his hand and said: "Um, but your employees are knowledgeable at all." That guy left as quickly as I did once that crap was over.

[petemoore]

RS..seminars and employees...been there...they run the gamrut...lol