Best power / standby switches?

[Victor Denance]

Hi!

What do you use / like best in your amps?

Carling are not made in the USA anymore, and I'm wondering if their quality has been going down or not.
There are some affordable witches w/ high power rating that look like they're well made.

Thanks for sharing!

Victor

[zhyla]

Dude, it's a switch.

[andrew_k]

Originally Posted by Victor Denance

Carling are not made in the USA anymore, and I'm wondering if their quality has been going down or not.

I love it when people associate Made Elsewhere with Made Poorly.

I can't comment on Carling's toggle switches, but I find their stomp switches to be of poor quality and don't use them in effects pedals anymore. I also remove them from any wah's that I mod.

[RogerWilco99]

Well, Honeywell makes good switches if you don't mind paying almost $14 for one. I use and recommend NKK switches, though. They are well made, tough and can be had for under $5.

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/637/1627.pdf

I don't know and really don't care where these are made. I believe NKK is a Korean company. All I know is they make good switches and I like and use them.

[RogerWilco99]

I just visited the NKK Switches web site (http://www.nkkswitches.com). Their main office is in Japan, not Korea. They have a US office in Scottsdale, AZ (if that matters).

As I said, though, where-ever their switches are made they are very high quality and I've never had a problem with one. They switch cleanly and with a definite snap to them. They aren't mushy with any kind of loose feel to them. Used per their specs, they don't short and they switch as they are intended. I believe if you try one, you'll like it.

Cheers,
Bruce

[R.G.]

Then there is the heretical approach.

I like power MOSFETs in the cathodes of the power tubes as standby switches. Turned on, they are 1 ohm (or less!) resistors. Turned off, they are open circuits compared to the rest of the circuit. You can use a P-channel in line with the B+ circuit and a couple of resistors and zeners to switch a P-channel, but then the whole thing floats up at B+. Putting N channels in the ground side turns off the ground side of the power supply.

Done properly you can use *any* switch you like, even one rated for under 50V and a few ma, because that's all the switch sees.

As for power switches, use any switch you like - to turn on a triac or solid state relay.

Historically, every time I say this in public, I get a whole chorus of nay-sayers, and a few more people try it and it works. So you readers sort yourselves into the two groups and have at it. LOL.