I've been out of the game for a while (more than 10 years) but i liked the quality of Alps controls, while back in those days they were making them in Brazil. These days I expect they are in China like everybody else.
The classic problem for mic preamps is that the good topology for mic preamps wants a very odd (slow at low ohms end) taper. We always ended up making custom tapers for large scale production, with extra process steps (extra screening layers) for improved performance at the high gain end.
If I were making one-off or low volume models, I would be tempted to consider a good quality 12 position switch. Where you could provide accuracy and wide gain range. Back when I tried using off the shelf parts I used something like a 1k reverse audio with slowest taper offered and had to live with the inability to turn down more at low gain end. Full custom pots enabled 25k max resistance with good adjustability at low ohms end. After all these years it seems odd nobody has offered a standard part for this pretty common problem.
There are also some nice digitally controlled mic preamp chips that avoid the pot taper issue entirely.
JR
