Potentiometers wholesale

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
Does anyone know where to get the 250K and 500K potentiometers for guitars wholesale. In this area they are between $4.50 and $7.50 apiece.

[David King]

What type of pot are you looking for and what level of quality do you need? Every manufacturer makes dozens of permutations of the same pot and then can comb through those to select for accurate specs. A good bet might be to set up an OEM account with Seymour Duncan and get their graded Bourns pots. I've heard good things about those and $4.50 is probably a reasonable price if they are as nice as folks are saying. You can get pots all day for under a buck but why bother if you end up tossing most of them in the trash?
If you want a good solid pot then start with PEC pots from digikey or Mouser, they run about $10-12 each. If you just want low grade pots in bulk then AllParts or Mojo are probably the easiest to deal with.

[Enzo]

Bourns pots for guitar range from $3.80 for pots, and $7-8 for pull switch pots at Mouser:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine....rd=guitar+pots

What do you consider wholesale? Just buying two or three controls and trying to get them at half price is not wholesale. You want 100s, 1000s?

Whatever AES sells, they also sell through CEDist at reduced price.

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
The mouser pots are $1.17 each, 10 at $11.70 is something like I was talking about.

[David King]

SpareRibs,
Those are probably Alpha brand. Just don't expect too much from them in terms of the feel and taper. Consistency will be all over the map.
I've had zero luck with run-of-the-mill Bourns pots, especially their more expensive plastic element pots, the "82" and the "95". Just pure garbage so far. The CEDist Bourns guitar pots come with oddball 1/4" 18 spline shafts for which no knobs exist. The most reliably useful pots I've come across so far are the Alps brand in the micro, 12mm dimension. These are way too small for most guitarists who are looking for a 24mm pot. Again the best 24mm pots are the Canadian made Precision Electronic Components (PEC) brand but the price is high.