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Guitar Pots From Real Electronics Suppliers

Bongolation

Bongolation

Nov 9, 2001
8,047
148
California
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No Bogus Endorsements
#1
Easier said than done!

Is it my imagination, or does Mouser not have any regular guitar pots out of the thousands they stock, despite carrying CTS, Alpha, ALPS, etc.? :confused:

Considering the absurd markups specialty guitar suppliers charge, I'd like to find a regular electronics warehouse to take care of my needs with these and other components. Suggestions?

As always, thanks for any useful information!
 
#3
Honestly, it's usually the one thing you need out of millions of items that they don't have.:crying:

I was just on Mouser last night looking for some electrolytic capacitors for a project I'm working on, and I was having a hard time finding anything close to what I needed, and what they did have was insanely expensive.

For the love of God, if I'm paying $5 for a capacitor, why does an otherwise identical capacitor with a 100uF greater capacitance have to cost $20 !? :eek:

And then there is the minimum order thing on some of them that aren't stocked...
I only need 4 capacitors, I'm not going to order a minimum of 3000+.:rollno:

Anyways, as far as the pots go, I think 250K/500K audio taper pots are a bit specialized for guitar based applications. They wouldn't be common in most electronics applications, so Mouser really has no reason to sell them. If someone needs a guitar pot, they will go to a guitar-based electronics supplier.
I could be wrong though.
 
#7
Digikey has been the best source for me for components and pots. Their shipping to my house is only $2 and I get the shipment in 2 days. But they don't have everything. I can't get them to stock those 25K linear mini alpha pots. I emailed them about it and never got a reply
 
#10
if you were anywhere near the boston area, i would suggest going to you-do-it electronics.
actually, its possible they'll ship product.
they have a good amount of audio type products.
check them out.

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there online searching might not be great, so an email/phone call might work better.
 
#11
Search Mouser for the Alpha 16mm pots.
I've used these for years with great results.

They're available in linear and audio, pretty much any
value, and with different shaft lengths and lug/terminal styles.

There are also push/pull pots and detented pots available.
The only thing that's missing is a ganged 'blend'-style control, but that's easy enough to source from the guitar places.

Best wishes,
Martin
 
#13
It would really help if we knew exactly what you are looking for..

I found plenty of 250 and 500K audio(120) and linear(302) taper pots on mouser.

(Under: Passive Components » Potentiometers & Rheostats » Panel Mount Potentiometers Then select the values and other features you want and click "apply filters")
 
#14
Right, as long as you are not mounting through the wood body (i.e. you're mounting through thin material like a pickguard or control plate), and you don't want to stack any controls, and you don't need any reverse taper, then Mouser has everything you need. :hmm: :hmm:
 
#16
Allied Electronics, Newark and Mouser (to a smaller degree) sell the Bourns "90" series potentiometers. I just bought a number of them in various resistance values. Most of them are linear taper, but a few are audio. They mount just fine in a normal solid body guitar. Bushing length is 3/8" and the shaft length varies from 3/8" to 1/2" (visible outside bushing).

Example:
Invalid Link Removed
Ignore the picture on the site. You can find the real picture inside the provided datasheet.

I've re-wired a few basses using these pots, and they work just fine. They all have 1/4" diameter shafts, so you will need to find knobs which fit.
 
#17
Bongolation said:
Easier said than done!

Is it my imagination, or does Mouser not have any regular guitar pots out of the thousands they stock, despite carrying CTS, Alpha, ALPS, etc.? :confused:

Considering the absurd markups specialty guitar suppliers charge, I'd like to find a regular electronics warehouse to take care of my needs with these and other components. Suggestions?

As always, thanks for any useful information!
Click to expand...

Check out the Bourns guitar replacement pots Mouser is stocking now. The PDB24 series are a very good sub for CTS, Alpha, etc.
 
#18
JackANSI said:
It would really help if we knew exactly what you are looking for..
Click to expand...
This is the exact pot I'm trying to replace, preferably with one of better quality.

It's a standard pot on possibly over million Cor-Tek contract basses/guitars, but it's not a particularly durable, with a fragile and pretty iffy inner wiper. It's about a $0.70 pot. which I've seen specialty guitar parts sell for $6.

I'd also like to find the D-taper versions.
 
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#19
Bongolation said:
This is the exact pot I'm trying to replace, preferably with one of better quality.

It's a standard pot on possibly over million Cor-Tek contract basses/guitars, but it's not a particularly durable, with a fragile and pretty iffy inner wiper. It's about a $0.70 pot. which I've seen specialty guitar parts sell for $6.

I'd also like to find the D-taper versions.
Click to expand...

You can get a CTS B500K pot from GuitarPartsResource.
 
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