Volume Pots

Charlie Moore · Post by **Charlie Moore** » 7 Apr 2011 6:30 am

Anybody know about a new pot for volume pedals,Its supposed to be 1,000,000, strokes guarantee or something like that...thanks...Charlie...

James Martin (U.K.) · Post by **James Martin (U.K.)** » 7 Apr 2011 8:40 am

I think you may well be referring to the Dunlop pots that Tom Bradshaw sells- no noise but fiddly to install.

Charlie Moore · Post by **Charlie Moore** » 7 Apr 2011 11:07 am

No It is not the dunlap pots,I tried two of those..they were bad...one had noise and the other the tamper( I call it)went from 0 to 25% with just a touch of movement..thanks for the come back..
Charlie....

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 7 Apr 2011 11:42 am

Check the new updated Williams website.
The last time I got next to Bill Rudolph, he had some volume pots for sale. I think they were out of Canada.

Jim Keeney · Post by **Jim Keeney** » 7 Apr 2011 6:10 pm

Get in touch with Gary Carpenter at Rains Steel,
I bought one from him a few months ago.
It works great.

Jim

David A. Jones · Post by **David A. Jones** » 7 Apr 2011 6:25 pm

I bought a volume pot from Bill Rudolph. It works well and the service was excellent.

Tom Bradshaw · Post by **Tom Bradshaw** » 7 Apr 2011 6:44 pm

Hi Charlie: If you bought a bad Dunlop pot from me or anyone, then you got 1 bad one out of the 2500+ that I've personally sold over the past 5 years. I don't care where you bought it, send it to me and I'll replace it free. Not everything produced is always perfect. But, I'll keep replacing it until it is. How can you beat a guarantee like I'm offering you (and everyone else in the world)? ...Tom

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 8 Apr 2011 5:41 pm

You should take Tom up on his offer. I've got his pots installed in both of my Goodrich pedals and they work flawlessly.

Bobby DeMoss · Post by **Bobby DeMoss** » 8 Apr 2011 7:11 pm

Hey Guys,
I bought several of these as did Bruce Zumsteg and I put one in each of my two rigs and that was close to two years ago. I stay busy with two shows a week and recording. They have been worked out good and are still going.
I recommend them highly.

Tomi Graso · Post by **Tomi Graso** » 10 Apr 2011 1:05 am

Hi Mr Tom Bradshaw...I think i read somewhere on the forum that you might have some 500k Pots for sale soon - from Dunlop as well , would you be so kind to let us know when this is coming up , Thanks so much ! Regards....Tomi...steel
Sydney / Australia

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 10 Apr 2011 1:22 am

the taper is bad but you get used to it. no sound then blast at the top, but the tone is good. the foot adjusts... Im talking about the Bradshaw pots. Still have the subtle tone and no high shril, but the volume from 0 to 25 is dramatic, then it is more managable. i Added more amp volume and pay more attention to the half way mark.

edit: Tom was very Straight up with me and I will buy more pedals and pots from him. He is the person that did the most to fix the pot problem as far as Im concerned. The problem is with the pot manufacturers and not the dealers.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 10 Apr 2011 7:46 am

The new pots sold by Goodrich that are guaranteed for 1 million cycles are PEC's (as I recall).

Tom Bradshaw · Post by **Tom Bradshaw** » 10 Apr 2011 8:02 am

Tomi, the Dunlop Company did share and allow me to test one of their new 500K, million cycle, audio-taper, pots that they are planning to use in yet another volume pedal they have in the works. I was very impressed with the taper and the fact that it had about 15 degrees of full "off" and full "on" at each end of the pot's rotation. That 15 degrees would end the problem of the wiper striking the pot's interior permanent stop. As strange as it may sound, the devastating situation in Japan has interrupted that project, because some of the significant components of that pot are produced there. It is another example of the growing global production of almost everything. All I can do is wait for the problem in Japan to be resolved.

Regarding the Dunlop pots I provide (the 470K's), there was simply a bad production run. I hadn't seen a need to test each pot before shipment, since it was only an occasional one that had a flaw. That bad batch caused me to replace about 40. Selling as many pots as I have, it was just a matter of time before some "catastrophe" would occur. I replaced every pot that was defective, even reimbursing every customer who would accept my reimbursement for their shipping costs (I think some tore up my refund check!). I now test every pot before shipment.

I'd like to add that offering these long-life pots has a merchandising down-side: In the 5 years that I've been selling them, I have only re-sold to one of the first customers, a pot he said he wore out (by practicing 4 hours a day, every day!). Thus, the only repeat sales I've made are to customers who have another volume pedal that needs a replacement pot. No business can sustain itself if its product never wears out! In time, I'll not have any customers. Gadzooks, I'm doomed. ...Tom

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 10 Apr 2011 12:15 pm

Tom, LOL. You need to practice the All-American "planned obsolescence." I too have one in my Goodrich for about 4 years now. Sorry, still works fine.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 10 Apr 2011 4:15 pm

Looks like Tom has everything squared away. In my active playing years my "main problems" were scratchy pots and hot 6L6's....along with bad cord connections, things not usually considered to be a problem today.

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Charlie Moore · Post by **Charlie Moore** » 11 Apr 2011 10:55 am

Well I did not intend to speak bad about the Dunlap pot,I just had problems with a couple of them..
I did send one back that was scratching and Tom sent me another free no charge..It was bad,the taper I call it was from 0 to 25% off then you could use it..
I play in the top of the volume pedal always have,so that makes it hard for me to work with..
Now let me set the record straight,when I bought the dunlap pot from Tom I told him it was bad and he sent me a new one no questions asked..
Now when I bought the first one I did'nt send the right amount for shipping but Tom said not to worry about it.So I did'nt feel right asking him to replace another pot.because I'm thinking this was the norm for these pots,but maybe not..thanks for letting me clear this up...
Charlie......

Ron Pruter · Post by **Ron Pruter** » 12 Apr 2011 2:42 am

Thought I'd put my two cents in. I got sick of changing pots so often so I went with the Dunlop.I'm not crazy about it's taper and actually do prefer the PEC pot. The dunlop is too touchy in the halfway point and not boosty enough at the end, for me. When I use my right knee levers ,it's almost impossible not to alter my volume.

Benton Allen · Post by **Benton Allen** » 13 Apr 2011 5:59 am

Charlie,

To answer your original question-----

These are the KA5041S28-HL Canadian made PEC 500K High Life Potentiometers. They are rated for one million cycles.

I bought a couple from Goodrich at the Convention in St. Louis last year. Both continue to work fine.
Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Benton

Charlie Moore · Post by **Charlie Moore** » 14 Apr 2011 9:08 am

Thanks fellows for the info,I have one on the way..Tom,I will send you this pot so you can see what went wrong with it..please send me your mailing address again..
thanks Charlie......

Tom Bradshaw · Post by **Tom Bradshaw** » 14 Apr 2011 12:30 pm

My address is P.O. Box 931, Concord, CA 94522. My web site has a lot more information besides my address. It is: http://www.songwriter.com/bradshaw/

Kirk Eipper · Post by **Kirk Eipper** » 10 May 2011 7:32 am

Hey Tom

The pot I got from you 4 years ago is still working as new! Great pot but you're right, maybe they last TOO long?

KE

Daniel Morris · Post by **Daniel Morris** » 13 May 2011 2:29 pm

I just had a volume pedal pot in my Goodrich cleaned up. No more scratchiness, but now it sounds like my other Goodrich, which I believe has the Dunlop pot.
It's muted at low volume, then becomes clean when full on. Almost a wah-pedal effect, which I don't recall hearing before. Time to replace them both, or does this sound to anyone like some other problem?
Curious...

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 14 May 2011 11:10 am

Daniel, that's been a trait of the standard pot pedals (500k ohm variety) forever. You may have just noticed it. The high frequencies are more attenuated at lower volume positions because of an impedance mismatch.

At full volume, the pot is showing the amp input(or pedal input) about 500k ohms. As you lower the volume with the pedal, that resistance becomes lower and lower, and bleeds off high frequencies (due to the mismatch with the amp's input impedance).

Some folks like that effect...I do...and some don't. The only way to avoid it is to get an electronic volume pedal...ie. Hilton, Telonics, H10k, etc. They are built to have a constant output impedance, so that, basically, what goes in is what comes out.

Daniel Morris · Post by **Daniel Morris** » 14 May 2011 11:30 am

Thanks, Mike, I suppose I may have only just noticed it, though I've been playing long enough to have heard it before. That effect simply wasn't there before the one pot was cleaned, just wasn't. I'm having both pots replaced - maybe it'll make a difference, maybe it won't. I keep hearing about electronic pedals, and perhaps one day I'll have to pull the trigger on one, but at the moment it'll have to wait.

Dave Beaty · Post by **Dave Beaty** » 14 May 2011 3:36 pm

Hi Daniel,
Normally the input from your guitar is connected to the "top" of the pot (in most pedals). Which is to say, the "other end" of the fixed resistance opposite the end connected to common ground. These are normally the two "outside" terminals on your pot. The wiper, or movable contact is connected to the center terminal on your pot (normally). So in normal use, the pickup in your guitar is connected to a fixed load of 500K, or 1 Megohm, etc (whatever the ohmic rating of your pot might be). The load impedance seen by your pickup is therefore essentially constant, fixed by the value of the fixed resistance in your pot. This load will change very little if the output is connected to your amp, however if it is connected to a effect pedal with a low input impedance, you can still get a bit of loading change as you use the pot, but it shouldn't be great deal of change.

Knowing that the wiper, or center terminal of your is normally the output, consider what happens if the input and output wires to the pot are switched during a pot change or rework.
Now, your guitar is connected to the wiper, which is essentially connected at or near ground when your pedal is fully back or "heel down", loading the pickup like crazy and changing the tone a LOT.
As you move the treadle of your pedal forward, the wiper moves up the pot, unloading your pickup more and more, until at full volume, the wiper is connected to the "top" or output of your pot and loading of your pickup is minimized as much as it can be. This would cause the effect that you are seeing. Just a thought, but that's what forums are for...
Hope it helps,
Dave

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