potentiometers

[Deleted]

Ok.. here we go;

   I have been in this huge chat about tone and volume pots. The question was asked ... Who makes the best pots? CTS or Bourns?

 Now I gave my response to this question that led into another question.

 You see I had bought some of these from China in bulk some years ago that turned out to be fake. I bought form two sellers on eBay. In the end I think they were the same person because of the address of where they came from in China.

 So anyway a guy jumped all over me saying that there is no such thing.

All I know is what I had gotten. They were marked with the CTS or Bourns name on them but when compared to the real thing you could tell they were not the real thing.

 

 So. this guy went on saying they would not waste their time with making fake ones because there is no profit in it. Hum... Then what did I get? I had only 2 pots that worked out of two 20 per bags. 20 CTS ,marked and 20 Bourns marked.

 They were junk! So because of my experience I try and warn people about buying stuff on eBay or anywhere else. You don't always get what you are thinking your getting.

 I had a boss of mine tell me this a long time ago...

  He was told by a China man (when is was in the military) Bring me all of your pennies and dimes and over time I will have more money that you.

  So in saying that.It's not how much someone can make on a sale it how many times I can sell it and make some money on it. Hum...

 So, what do you all think? Have you had any experience in not getting what you paid for?

  Oh I did report these sellers or seller. They are no longer selling under the name they used back then. But that's not to say they aren't still selling.

EB

 

[chezvoz]

This doesn't surprise me at all. China is a copycat economy. Usually the quality starts out low and gets better over time.

There is also little to no recourse on things made in China, whether they are fakes or just defective products.

I have bought Chinese made stuff, but am getting more and more conscious of trying to buy American.

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2019 11:26:50 GMT -6 chezvoz said:

This doesn't surprise me at all. China is a copycat economy. Usually the quality starts out low and gets better over time.

There is also little to no recourse on things made in China, whether they are fakes or just defective products.

I have bought Chinese made stuff, but am getting more and more conscious of trying to buy American.

Yes me too. I try and buy only from the USA these days. It does cost a little more. But at least most of the time I can get my money back or get a chance to return the item without waiting a super log time in between.

  I have to really watch out for myself on line though... Here of late, here is what is going on. The China sellers now have warehouses stocked with parts here in the USA.

I got some parts not too long ago that said it was it was coming from China. ( I did not realize it was coming form there until I paid for it) I had the items in 2 days time. WOW From China? How did they do that? The parts were sent from CA. That's how. I went back to eBay to see what was going on. In the add it says it is a USA seller. But when I checked the Pay Pal invoice it said they were a China seller. On there it shows a China address. Hum... What the heck.

 After looking around on line I found out that is what they are doing a lot of this. Leasing some place ( a lot of them in CA) to ship from. Saves them money to ship a bunch of parts here to the USA and then ship them as the orders come in.

 Seems a little shady to me... But they still would have to clear customs right???

EB

[dnic]

I've used Alpha, CTS and Bourns. CTS are the only pots that have come apart from pressing the knobs on. I repaired them by squeezing them back together and soldering the tabs so they won't do it again. Alpha pots meter out great and are very dependable but they rotate very stiffly. And so I have settled on the Bourns pots, they meter well and have been very dependable as far as I can tell. They are a little more $ but not much so. And I buy products only from reputable dealers. Stew Mac, AllParts, not going to name them all. I have never bought from EBay. I think that's the best way to avoid copy cats and crap parts in general. And yes I probably pay a bit more for stuff but I feel more secure in what I'm putting into my top of the line custom guitars. The only thing I know of that I'm sure came straight from China were the GFS pickups that I put into a few of my early builds. Which were there only as place fillers until a customer told me what type of pick up they wanted. That was the plan anyway. I think they are all still in the guitars I put them in and working fine. Anymore I pretty much use only John Williams pickups unless the customer asks for something else. Very happy with what John whips up for me.

[antares]

The Bourns pots that I've encountered have always been of higher perceived quality with a precise and "silky action". Sometimes a stiffer feel is more useful and it's been my experience that CTS often fill that niche. Alpha get quite close to CTS, but I find the threads and nuts inferior to CTS.

All this is just mechanical stuff because resistance is purely a property and cannot sensibly be qualified beyond comparing quoted to actual value, and you can choose whether you want logarithmic or linear for a given application.

Of interest to me is the curve because some pots have abrupt track width changes rather than an actual tapering track which reduces control to steps.

e&oe ...

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Oct 12, 2019 10:55:20 GMT -6 dnic said:

I've used Alpha, CTS and Bourns. CTS are the only pots that have come apart from pressing the knobs on. I repaired them by squeezing them back together and soldering the tabs so they won't do it again. Alpha pots meter out great and are very dependable but they rotate very stiffly. And so I have settled on the Bourns pots, they meter well and have been very dependable as far as I can tell. They are a little more $ but not much so. And I buy products only from reputable dealers. Stew Mac, AllParts, not going to name them all. I have never bought from EBay. I think that's the best way to avoid copy cats and crap parts in general. And yes I probably pay a bit more for stuff but I feel more secure in what I'm putting into my top of the line custom guitars. The only thing I know of that I'm sure came straight from China were the GFS pickups that I put into a few of my early builds. Which were there only as place fillers until a customer told me what type of pick up they wanted. That was the plan anyway. I think they are all still in the guitars I put them in and working fine. Anymore I pretty much use only John Williams pickups unless the customer asks for something else. Very happy with what John whips up for me.

First, Thanks Dane...I've always enjoyed making pickups for your builds.

Second, I've seen a number of mods on CTS pots where someone takes the case from an old CTS pot -- with the old date code -- and installs it on a newer pot, carefully bending the lugs back into place. You can even leave the original solder joints intact. Note -- you can't see the lugs on top of the pot without removing it. That is why you have to remove pots to authenticate electronics...something a lot of people won't do or allow.

John

[antares]

That's true. I have a friend living closer to Philadelphia than New York who is semi obsessed with provenance and he is insistent on checking pot codes. I guess when lots of cash is involved it's only reasonable?

e&oe ...

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2019 2:09:38 GMT -6 antares said:

That's true. I have a friend living closer to Philadelphia than New York who is semi obsessed with provenance and he is insistent on checking pot codes. I guess when lots of cash is involved it's only reasonable?

e&oe ...

 I was just talking to a guy that was getting ready to buy a "vintage" guitar. The cost is around $20,000 US. He was going to buy it from looking at pictures. I warned him not to buy it unless you were there had it in your hands and that I would want to have it looked over by at least 2 people to make sure it was the real deal. If the seller did not want to do that, then walk away from it. Something is not right.

 I had a guy bring me a Finder Strat a couple of years ago. He was so proud that he had gotten this super nice Fender Strat. He brought it to me to do a set up on it and to put on some new strings. He paid a lot of money for this guitar. It was supposed to be I think a 1962.

 After looking over the guitar something to me just felt wrong. I took the pickguard off to find out it was not a USA Strat body. It was at best a Squier. The neck was USA but the that was just about the only thing that was. I felt bad to have to call my customer and tell him the news.

 He was heart broken. I set the guitar up and put on some new strings and I did get it to play great. I just didn't have it in me to charge him for the work. He did try and go back to the guy he bought it from, but he was long gone.

 I learned the hard way about buying on impulse. It's not a good thing! I don't care how good of a deal it is. Don't by out of impulse.

  And if anyone is going to spend a lot of money an anything, have it looked over by someone that knows. I will even today take a guitar or at least the numbers and have them looked up by a music store. Even after I looked it myself.

   I got into a mess a few years back when I traded for a counterfeit guitar. That is when I learned not to do trades on impulse. Everything on it side it was USA made in the USA factory. But it was a fake!

 I lost out on that deal big time. That guitar was such a good fake the it fooled 5 people. The guy that found out it was a fake was a dealer from Grover. The Grovers on that guitar was the fist flag that it was fake. He showed us what the real ones looked liked over the counterfeit Grovers. We then pulled the pickups and they turened out to be Fake EPI pickups. Not one thing on that guitar was USA made.

 OH well, the things that go on...

 

 So look before you buy. I don't care who is selling what. It pays to be cautious in buying things. So many these days are up to no good.

EB