Clarostat bought A-B back in the day and the US made pots I have found to be nearly identical to the AB's.... When production started in Mexico something about them changed and they never seemed like the AB's again.
If you can get us made one I'd give them another go (assuming they are decent priced).
Those steel players will buy the right AB or Clarostat for big bucks ( I think it is the only thing expensive they will buy) and save them for years and years and years, To them nothing else is quite right.
Interesting point, Tony.
I remember a tech who worked on a lot of Dumbles once told me the
Taiwan-made CTS pots would change the tone when he substituted them
for US-made ones.He didn´t say anything about taper,though.
In my amp HAD used both 30% and 10% taper pots,
so I suspect that it is mostly about the materials used.
I guess it matters more in some parts of the amp than in others,as with all components.
FWIW I once changed the bass pot in my amp from 1 Meg 30% taper to 1Meg 10% taper, and did not notice any difference in tone.
I imagine it could be audible in the case of the treble pot, never tried it.
Just my 2 cents Marcos
glasman wrote:I honestly think, the 30% pots make a sonic difference. Who knows maybe it is only because I can run the input gain around 11:00 and that makes me feel better.
Probably shouldn't discount that factor. Also, for my part the controls on these amps are often used more like they were boost controls (turning up) rather than cut (turning down). So being able to start hitting the "sweet spot" of a control earlier (11:00 versus 2:00) means that there is more room and resolution to fine tune the control up above that spot?
I notice on my amp that the tone controls really don't seem to do much until I have them above 12:00.
The mid and bass pot don't seem to have a very big influence on those frequencies.
I know they work together but on my amp I usually have the treble at about 2:00 and the mid and bass at 10:00.
I wonder if there are data sheets for pots or a method of determining what besides carbon is being used.
And just to make things worse....lol.....are there or can there be differences in carbon? Purity, quality, additives....who is the resident carbon smart person?
I know that carbon comp resistors use a slurry of some type that the carbon is mixed with. Some speculate that the different slurry materials also affects tone and I suspect that may be true... I wonder what is used with pots to make the carbon stay put?
Structo wrote:
I notice on my amp that the tone controls really don't seem to do much until I have them above 12:00.
The mid and bass pot don't seem to have a very big influence on those frequencies.
I know they work together but on my amp I usually have the treble at about 2:00 and the mid and bass at 10:00.
ampdork wrote:
And just to make things worse....lol.....are there or can there be differences in carbon? Purity, quality, additives....who is the resident carbon smart person?
ampdork wrote:
And just to make things worse....lol.....are there or can there be differences in carbon? Purity, quality, additives....who is the resident carbon smart person?
Al Gore?
Nah, he only knows about AlGorithmic pots, not logarithmic.
