Who makes good Pots?

i need 2- 100k and 3- 1M pots for the bloo project. what do you guys recommend?
i gather that alpha is not the desirable choice, so what is, then?
thanks

How much money you wanna spend for all five?

These are PEC - what UA uses:

100k Digi-Key# KA1041S28-ND $17.88 (2)
1M Digi-Key# RV4L105C-ND $19.59 (3)

PEC's are pretty nice and they have a nice solid feel (if you don't mind the slight scraping sound). I've found that some of the higher quality pots (i.e PEC, Bourns) really don't compare in terms of feel to those cheap Taiwan Alpha's. Nothing beats the feel of those super cheap Alpha pots--but the tolerances are kind of all over the place, and only time will tell how long they'll last. Some of the best all around pots I've seen are Clarostat and Alps, and both brands are kinda hard to come by, at least here in the states.

sweet!
that's not too bad - i think i can splurge on these since i saved over $1k by not buying a "real" la2..

thanks, guys

Alps makes a 100k log conductive plastic pot. 25 bucks a pop at Angela Instruments but worth it. Quiet and smooth action, long lasting, although you won't be spinning knobs too much on a compressor.

I always use those Alpha pots, unless I can find some old Allen and Bradley of some other US pots for a couple bucks at APEX or C&H. Has anyone had a bad experience as far as them dying on them or something like that? They always work good for me.

The Alpha pots have a great feel and they're still going strong in guitar amps I built ten years ago. So do they suck? I don't think so. You can buy better pots, but the Alphas represent a good overall value, in my opinion.

Still, considering the cash you've laid out for the other parts of your LA2A project, and the fact that only a couple of pots are required, it might be worth your while to go a little more "upscale." I'm using Alphas for my DIY mixer project, but it has a lot to do with the fact that I need to buy over fifty pots!

the rv4n series are really good pots, the only drawback is that they are big and only come in 1/4" shaft, but with an la2a you should probably have more than enough of panel space to mount it where ever you want. I dont know the part offhand, but the plastic clarostats in the metal can are really fabulous pots, they have a better action than the bourns 91 series and sound really good. Unfotrunately they are around $12 each. The bourns 91 is a great standby but most people like to put a washer on the shaft to thicken it up a bit, without it, the action is really loose.

dave

Hey Dave,

Are you referring to the Clarostat RV4NAYSD104A? Those are linear pots, aren't they?

I was talking abou thte pec rv4n. I dont have the clarostat number, but they are linear, yes. Its hard to find log values, but you can get the 91 series bourns as a standard stock item in some log values from mouser or digikey.

dave

This thread reminds me of a problem I have:

I need to replace some "AB" (=Allen & Bradley?) ModPot's, namely a combination of 2 x 20k and 1 x 10k, all 3 ganged together. anyone know where to find a replacement in europe? or at least anywhere? R-S in Austria don't seem to have any, nor do any of the German carriers.

anyone have any recommendations for a pcboard mount pot for the nice new v14 green pre? preferably one that is available at digikey?