5E3 potentiometer ?'s

[cooper]

Hi guys,

Are the pots in the 5E3 linear or audio taper?

Also, I've heard Clarostat pots are supposed to be terrific but am having a hard time finding them. What are the best pots I can find for the 5E3 and where can I find them? Do any of you have any favorites?

Thanks once again!

cooper

www.blanketeer.net
www.myspace.com/blanketeer

[LowellH]

Hi Cooper,

They're all 1M audio taper, I believe. I bought my 5E3 pots here: http://clarkamplification.com/Parts/potentiometers.htm

[cooper]

Those look good, I'll check them out and thank you -

[n5oet3h]

Hi guys,

Are the pots in the 5E3 linear or audio taper?

Also, I've heard Clarostat pots are supposed to be terrific but am having a hard time finding them. What are the best pots I can find for the 5E3 and where can I find them? Do any of you have any favorites?

Thanks once again!

cooper

www.blanketeer.net
www.myspace.com/blanketeer

Cooper,

Nothing compares to the Clarostat (now owned by Honeywell) conductive plastic pots. They let the most tone through. They aren't cheap, $15 a piece. I've got them in my guitar and for the Mission 5E3 kit I'm building now.

They're available from West Labs.

n5oet3h

[TD_Madden]

they let the msot tone through? Just curious about how they do that?

[n5oet3h]

they let the msot tone through? Just curious about how they do that?

Well, let's put it this way. All pots are not that great compared to good quality fixed resistors. So for years people have searched and compared the various semi-conductive materials used in pots. The summary kind of goes like this:

Poor: Carbon (not to be compared to carbon comp resistors used for mojo)

Good: Cermet

Very good: conductive plastic

Best: fixed resistor ladder, where not more than 2 resistors are used for each step.

It's really about which material is messing up the sound most, which results in a loss of detail, ambience, and overtones. That spells less "tone", musicality, and sustain. Do we know exactly how and why this happens? No. But it does. It is unfortunate that most guitars and guitar amps use very cheap pots - carbon or cermet. Their physical conformity seems to be more important than their sound, which is too bad, considering the lengths we'll go to in order to improve our sound!

n5oet3h

P.S. Are those FOUR deluxes I see in your avatar?!?!

[Steve Conner]

I call BS! Everyone knows the tone performance of a pot is really limited by the carburettor. The Clarostat pots have a tiny 4-barrel tone carburettor specially made by Holley. It makes them sound awesome and shaves a whole 2 seconds off their 1/4 mile time too, if you throw them hard enough.

If you think that sounds crazy, well that's how crazy I think your other claims sound.

I have built resistor network volume controls for hi-fi work, but for different reasons: a resistor network gives far better channel balance at all settings than a dual-gang pot, and if you use a ladder network, the output impedance is the same at every volume setting, so the treble response is consistent. Also, the ladder network only needs two different values of resistor to create a true log taper, no matter how many taps you want, so you can buy in bulk.

But for guitar amp work I use cheap and nasty Alpha carbon film pots and to hell with it.

[n5oet3h]

I call BS! Everyone knows the tone performance of a pot is really limited by the carburettor. The Clarostat pots have a tiny 4-barrel tone carburettor specially made by Holley. It makes them sound awesome and shaves a whole 2 seconds off their 1/4 mile time too, if you throw them hard enough.

If you think that sounds crazy, well that's how crazy I think your other claims sound.

I have built resistor network volume controls for hi-fi work, but for different reasons: a resistor network gives far better channel balance at all settings than a dual-gang pot, and if you use a ladder network, the output impedance is the same at every volume setting, so the treble response is consistent. Also, the ladder network only needs two different values of resistor to create a true log taper, no matter how many taps you want, so you can buy in bulk.

But for guitar amp work I use cheap and nasty Alpha carbon film pots and to hell with it.

Steve,

Good explanation of a resistor ladder pot. Whatever works for someone is fine with me. I'm not preaching. Just MHO of what I do, and why.

n5oet3h

[cooper]

Sorry it took so long to get in on this, but I do think pots make a difference in tone. I've seen those step attenuators in high end mic pres, what a pain in the butt to solder! That would be pretty cool though...


Thanks for the West Labs referral, that's just what I wanted. For those looking for them:

http://www.westlabs.com/