Scratchy Pots

[Dante]

My T100s has some serious scratch in the pots when I turn the volume up or down. I have tried cleaning them, which works for a short time, but I feel like I better just replace them.

Question: Can I use any ol' volume pot from the electronics store, or are these 'special' in some way?
Question Too: Am I looking for Audio taper pots?

Any info would be greatly appreciated

[MarshallJMP]

Got a pic of them,my T100S is in my rack and it's pain to get it out.

[Dante]

 :thumb-up: Right!

I'll get a pic for ya, no worries. Thanks man

[Dante]

Here y'go!

I opened up the unit and took several pix, but they all looked terrible. So, I decided to take the pots out to get a better look. Once I had them out, I sprayed them LIBERALLY with D-Oxit, wiped off the excess, and ran each pot through about a thousand cycles back & forth.

Problem solved...no scratchy pots, smooooooth as a baby's butt.  :metal:

Pix for posterity ;)

TIP: Make your pix 800 pixels wide max

[GuitarBuilder]

Those look like fairly standard audio taper pots, by the way, 50KOhm.  They should be easy to find and replace if the scratchiness comes back.

[MarshallJMP]

Hey Dante,let me know you should you ever need some replacements,i think i have these lying around.

[Dante]

Hey Dante,let me know you should you ever need some replacements,i think i have these lying around.

Thanks Bro, I appreciate it. If they're pretty common, I have a good electronics store here, I can pick some up. They are fine now, and that is truly awesome  :banana-trip:

Afro Power: Activ8  O0

[Systematic Chaos]

Too bad that they´re PCB-pots...after quite some experimenting and doing maint. on my amps I now swear by Bourns PDA24 series pots... CTS is mainly $$ for the name and Alpha has some real tolerances in quality (at least that´s what I experienced...)

[MarshallJMP]

Doesn't Bourns sell pcb types?

[Systematic Chaos]

Doesn't Bourns sell pcb types?

I haven´t seen any Bourns PCB typos so far....at least not with common/standard solderlug spacing.
Neither www.tube-town.net (that´s where I bought/ordered almost all my parts AND tubes (=awesome service!!) and still do) nor Banzaimusic has Bourns PCB pots....

Nice thing with the above mentioned PDA241 series is the higher friction/torque, especially for amplifier or FX applications....aside from the superb quality.

I don´t know if Mouser has Bourns high-friction PCB-mount pots though....shipping costs (at least 30€ to my loc) are in no relation to what I occasionally need in terms of parts  :o

Nevertheless, out of the experiences I made so far, we tend to try and save some cents on the wrong end. We spend enormous amounts of money on tubes and stuff (best example being =C= power tubes....) and live with absolute crappy wiring, cables, pots, resistors, caps,.... But these cent-parts do have a big impact on tone and and performance of our gear.

Just my 2 €-cents though....  8) 8)

Have a nice weekend y´all!!!