The Steel Guitar Forum

Hopefully I'm not violating any guidelines for posting this, but with the issues there have been with bad replacement pots, there seems to be some good news and I thought it worth mentioning here that Ollie Goodrich has apparently worked with the PEC folks to begin making a longer life Pot for the Goodrich pedals. They are the same manufacturer they've apparently been using for a while, namely PEC in Canada.

I was talking to Ollie on a different topic and asked him about these, and he said he is now putting these in all his new pedals. You can also order one of these for replacing a scratchy pot. Before talking with Ollie, it just so happens I had ordered one of these thru another Goodrich dealer that was selling the pot. So far it is working with not the slightest bit of static, looks very promising!!! Ollie told me the way to be certain you have the new and improved pot, is to find the letters "HL" (indicating High Life) stamped at the end of the part number on the back of the pot. Here is the write up about the new pot:

This is the Goodrich 500K direct replacement pot for the 120, L120, H10K and L10K Series Volume Pedals. After painstaking research and development all Goodrich Volume pedals are now coming equipped with the new ULTRA HIGH LIFE 500K audio taper potentiometer. The High Life Pot is capable of one million cycles, which is almost 10 times the life of the original 500K volume pot. The Goodrich Ultra High Life 500K Potentiometer is suitable for use in any volume pedal that requires the use of a 500K audio taper pot.

Great! Who has these in stock?

I got mine from the folks at this website http://www.tonetronix.com/ and actually called them before ordering, as their website reflected they were out of stock. However, the fella I spoke with said they are getting frequent shipments of these pots, and their website might not be quite in sync with whether the pots are or aren't in stock at the moment. Not sure if you can order them direct from Ollie Goodrich or not. I can say that the Tonetronix folks get their supply of this sparticular pot directly from Ollie. I would think there are other Goodrich dealers that either have them, or can get them now.

-Chuck

I wonder how these compare to the Dunlop pots that Tom Bradshaw sells?

push to the top to inform others, of the new, improved replacement 500K pot from the Goodrich folks.

Trap, if I may chime in and answer your question, please be aware that I am a Goodrich dealer and have these new pots in stock.
Jerry

Please bump for more people to hear whats new in products from Goodrich

Does anyone know if Curt and Ollie will be at the St. Louis convention and if so, will they have these new issue pots for sale there?

I think most of the Vendors listed on the Forum carry these PEC pots.

I wonder how these compare to the Dunlop pots that Tom Bradshaw sells?

The bugaboo about those Dunlops has always been the odd little posts you solder to. I can't help but think that in the Dunlop factory they must have some kind of solder tag or ring on the wires, cause you sure wouldn't get fast production out of them without that.

The pots I sell were originally made for a particular effects pedal the Dunlop Company once sold. These pots were made to easily press into a surface mounted PC board in that effects pedal. I'm lucky to be able to still obtain these million-cycle pots which, after nearly 6 years of selling over 2500 of them, only two customers have told me they wore theirs out. I think most users are willing to suffer through a one-time soldering job if they get that kind of quality from something they bought from a little baldheaded dufuss in California. But then, maybe not. ...Tom

I see Scotty has the Goodrich boys listed as having a booth at the ISGC again, so I guess I'll pick up one or two there.

I just ordered 3 of them from Jim Palenscar at Steel Guitars of North County.

I guess we'll have to wait another year or so to see if these pots last as long as the Dunlop pots that Tom Bradshaw offers.

So, it's been a few years since this thread went up. I'm just wondering what people are finding with these newer PEC "HL" pots? Are they staying scratch free and 'high life' as they claim?

I want (i.e. "need") to change mine out in my Goodrich 120 pedal, and like that they use the same type of connecting posts.

I'd also like to order another one from Goodrich, but not if the new ones are experiencing the same problems as the older ones.

Thanks!
TJW

Yes- the thread is almost 4 years old. While the PEC 500k HL pots are available from us I would suggest waiting 8-10 weeks if you can as there is a new pot that we are having developed for our Goodrich volume pedals that hopefully will be more reliable.

Thanks, Jim. The Goodrich 120 I have now I bought in 2012, and it does have the HL pot in it, but it started scratching out after just a few months. I had not realized this until after posting yesterday, and looking closer!




I will definitely wait. Thanks!
TJW

I also have a L120 that I bought from Ollie at the Dallas show in 2012. It has become very scratchy in the last 3-4 months. I only play at home when I get the chance so it shouldn't be worn out !!! I'm very interested to hear any ones thoughts or answers on this.

Yep, fit a Dunlop pot from Tom Bradshaw, or buy Hilton pedal ,no pot no problem .

another testimonial for the ones tom bradshaw sells... i put 'em in both my pedals and moved on to other issues.

while i don't remember reading any complaints about bradshaw's pots, he's also mr.- take-care-of-any-issues.

i also remember him saying something about how he's sold thousands of them and only had a couple of bad ones... over many years.

'nuff said.

Every time I change something out I always put a date nearby whatever I did. I just took the bottom cover off my Goodrich and the date says 5/4/08. My Dunlop has been in that long and works like new! That's the longest mileage I've ever gotten out of a pot!! An all around great one! Thanks Tom, you did good!! Loren.

The Dunlop pots from Tom Bradshaw are the best potentiometers I've ever used, bar none. Besides the long life, I noticed another thing.

To my ear, they also sound better than other pots of similar resistive value. I can't explain why, but where other 500k pots I've used always require a buffer of some kind to maintain tone throughout their range, these don't, for some reason. It doesn't seem to make sense, but that's been my experience.

Jerry Gleason wrote:The Dunlop pots from Tom Bradshaw are the best potentiometers I've ever used, bar none. Besides the long life, I noticed another thing.

To my ear, they also sound better than other pots of similar resistive value. I can't explain why, but where other 500k pots I've used always require a buffer of some kind to maintain tone throughout their range, these don't, for some reason. It doesn't seem to make sense, but that's been my experience.

OK - it's not just me then! I noticed this, too. Seems the travel is a bit smoother too, though that may just be because the old pot was so crappy and scratching out after on a few months!

Todd and Jerry,
Here is a part of an earlier writing I posted back in November of 2014. The first two paragraphs may help shed some light.

There has been much discussion lately regarding some pot pedals sounding different than other pot pedals. This seems strange since most pedals use a 500K pot. How can they possibly sound different? This week I asked my Chief Engineer to measure a few pots using a capacitance bridge, and see if there could possibly be some capacity between the resistive element and the metal case. In theory I knew there had to be some capacitance, but such a low value, I thought it would not be a factor.

The results are in: the pots he measured ranged between 8 and 22 pf. 22pf is certainly enough capacity to cause high frequency loss at high impedance. This might explain why various pot pedals not only do sound different, but none of them sound as good as a pedal using the new generation of non-metal pots, similar to the ones Tom Bradshaw offers.

But Wait, There's More!
Beyond volume pedal troubles, consider the guitars with built-in volume or tone controls. Add to that the fact that some pick up manufacturers use mini-coax such as RG-174 to carry the audio once it leaves the pickup. This coax is rated right at 30pf per foot. When you add all of this together, is there any wonder that we are always chasing a better tone.

Sincerely,
Craig Baker 706-485-8792

cmbakerelectronics@gmail.com

C.M. Baker Electronics
P.O. Box 3965
Eatonton, GA 31024

I have a Dunlop Hi-Gain VP that I've used with my Tele on and off for about 6 years. When my Goodrich started getting scratchy, I started using the Hi-Grain Dunlop pedal with my steel. I decided to do an A/B test one day between the Dunlop and the Goodrich. I could not believe the difference in tone. I bought a Dunlop pot and put it in the Goodrich pedal and it sounds so much better than it did before. So, all that to say, those Dunlop pots are very good.