Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

Diminished Triad

Diminished Triad

New member
Thinking of outfitting my Warmoth kits with fender pots, but want to know if anyone has recommendations for better makes?
Using for 1 strat with 3 single coils, 1 strat with 2 humbuckers, and 1 tele with standard tele pickups (all SD pickups for all 3 guitars).
Thanks!
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

As long as you pick audio taper and they are the right K rating I can't see how you could go wrong. I've had good tone with many different pot brands.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

top of the line brands are CTS or Bourns.

Alpha are decent.

Bourns and Alpha turn much easier than the CTS pots, if you like pots that don't fight back when you want to adjust them. I believe the Fender pots are made by CTS.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

AlexR said:
As long as you pick audio taper and they are the right K rating I can't see how you could go wrong. I've had good tone with many different pot brands.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Planning on 250 for the single coils and tele pickups and 500 for the humbuckers.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

CTN said:
top of the line brands are CTS or Bourns.

Alpha are decent.

Bourns and Alpha turn much easier than the CTS pots, if you like pots that don't fight back when you want to adjust them. I believe the Fender pots are made by CTS.
Click to expand...
Great! Thanks CTN....
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

Bourn and CTS are solid. Like already stated, it depends on the level of friction you prefer.


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Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

I have Alphas in my PRS. I like the way they turn. They have just enough give to not feel cheap. Soundwise, I can't really say. I know next to nothing about differences in pots soundwise, but I told a local tech that I wanted to change my pots from Alpha to CTS and he told me that Alphas are good pots and that I may not notice a difference in sound. And there isn't a huge difference in price between CTS and Alpha.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

I use Alphas in (I think) all my guitars, because I like the way they feel and electrically there really not much different than the CTS stuff. I've never seen any Bourns pots up here, and I couldn't be arsed to go out of my way to find a Bourns dealer in the States that's likely different from the usual places I get parts from.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

I use Alpha... I like Alpha.... They turn nicely and haven't conked out from the amount of volume swells I do when I get bored :)
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

I use whatever I can afford.

I much prefer a linear taper as opposed to audio/log taper though which can be a ***** to find for cheap. Especially if you need a push/pull.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

Drunken Bowling said:
Soundwise, I can't really say. I know next to nothing about differences in pots soundwise, but I told a local tech that I wanted to change my pots from Alpha to CTS and he told me that Alphas are good pots and that I may not notice a difference in sound.
Click to expand...

After seeing numerous posts here, I don't think there's any difference in sound between any of the brands.
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

I tend to like a slightly stiff (but still smooth-to-turn) pots. For me, Alphas, and even the bourns EVH - let alone the YJM - pots feel cheap, even though I know they're top shelf, the sweep is too fast for me. I prefer the CTS Pots that are spec'd by RS Guitarworks. They're smooth to turn, but reassuringly solid, and as you use them, they loosen up a bit. Just enough to not feel "stuck", but they don't change on a fingerflick... so they won't do "Swell surprise", unless you really want them to (with a lot of flick-power). Also, they test within 10% of their rated spec, and they're usually ABOVE (and not bellow) what their rating is. For example, my 250K volume superpot is actually about 300K. (NB: Superpots only work for volume, they do weird things for tone control.)

The only downside is the price is a bit steep, but for the extra quality (I suspect that the stiffness is in part due to better build, but also due to heavier carbon track), I feel it's worth it... especially because they have a very nice tone-control taper, and the tone control gives a nice wide tonal sweep range of high-end roll-off.

Jason
 
Re: Preferred Pot Brands/Manufacturer?

What do you guys think of the Bourns 82 vintage blue box and 95 black box pots? They're quite a bit more expensive, but say they last forever.
 
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