CTS Pots - Inconsistency

[cassius987]

I've been told that these are the gold standard of conventional guitar pots. However, having ordered around 20 to date for various projects, a few things disappoint me.

1. Hardware is inconsistently colored or shaped--seems like a red flag. All labeled CTS though, and look the same from the bottom.

2. Values for resistance are all over the place. Tolerance seems to be +/- 20% in some cases.

3. The most annoying to me--the pots turn with different resistances to the torque. So when the project is done, the tone control (for example) turns "fast" but the others turn "slow", etc.

This just kind of irritates me and I was wondering if there was an alternative to CTS for people working on projects. I've heard of Bourns but they seem like they are only meant for certain applications, with their long shafts etc.

 

[line6man]

I'm not sure about the other things, but concerning point 2, IIRC, 20% is infact their tolerance, so there is nothing out of the ordinary there.
20% is a common tolerance for most other manufacturer's pots, as well.

 

[cassius987]

Hm--nobody else? I guess CTS is the standard then.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I loved the blue modular Bournes pots, used a lot of them back in the 80's and early 90's.

These days, I find it increasingly difficult to find sufficient variety in parts for a reasonable price, at least in the low quantities that I use them. The best supplier in Canada started requiring bulk orders a number of years ago...

 

[JimInMO]

A couple of years ago I measured a number of 250 CT pots and they varied from below 200 to above 300 k. Measured some Alpha pots from Warmoth and they were within 10 cents of each other. The Alpha's went into the project Strat and have worked flawlessly since. Just my experience, others mileage may vary.