Bourns 500K push-pull - avoid!

[fdesalvo]

How the mighty have fallen!

Well, maybe not entirely, but I bought a 3 pack and have to say that I'm very disappointed in the alleged log taper and the force required to actuate the switch.  I ended up installing a cheaper Alpha pot and it's perfect. 

YMMV  :dontknow:

 

[Vzylexy]

Yeah, I have a couple Bourns "Guitar Pots" installed in one of my guitars and they're garbage, barely any taper!

 

[mayfly]

Wow!  How the mighty have fallen indeed!!

 

[fdesalvo]

Wow!  How the mighty have fallen indeed!!

Indeed - I've built a few amps with their pots and they were wonderful.  Maybe this was just a bad lot  :icon_scratch:

 

[BigSteve22]

Bourns pots were just about all we used building Special Test Equip. for the Navy and Air Force. But that was over 20 years ago for me......

 

[Cagey]

I have some experience with Bournes pots. They're actually very nice parts - pretty high-end - but they're not designed for guitars. They're sort of an instrumentation-grade or high-end audio thing. Guitars need something that can move easily and take a serious beating.

The best parts you can get that will work well and have a good life expectancy in a guitar come from Clarostat, but they're pricey little devils. Figger $15/ea. Not many willing to pay that kind of money.  So, a good compromise is the CTS pots most folks use. They're a 1/3 of the price, and work well enough for most purposes.

 

[BigSteve22]

If you can't find Clarostat, try searching for Honeywell, they bought out Clarostat. Although, as Cagey points out, CTS pots work very well. I've had them in one of my guitars for years, no noise, rotation still smooth. Used them in my last build, plan on using them in my next.