Whats your favorite type of pot

[stretch2011]

ah I see. One of the "if you have the money why not" kind of deals. Agreed, too rich for my blood.

[Blackburn]

I wonder if they're customized with different dirt that the others are lol.

[David Root]

All the PEC pots I have were made in Canada, not Mexico.

I believe there are two types, carbon and conductive plastic. I'll have to check the specs to see if they are made both ways. EDIT: 2W RV4 Type K are "hot molded carbon". Carbon itself isn't "moldable", so I suspect this means they are in fact "conductive plastic"??

I have heard that conductive plastic sounds different than carbon, and not in a good way.

I do know that Randall Aiken used PEC pots for some years but eventually changed to Alpha as a problem developed with the PECs. I think it was intermittency, which would fit with dirt inside the pot, maybe slough off from the abrasion of the wiper on the trace.

[Colossal]

All the PEC pots I have were made in Canada, not Mexico.

I believe there are two types, carbon and conductive plastic. I'll have to check the specs to see if they are made both ways. EDIT: 2W RV4 Type K are "hot molded carbon". Carbon itself isn't "moldable", so I suspect this means they are in fact "conductive plastic"??

I have heard that conductive plastic sounds different than carbon, and not in a good way.

I do know that Randall Aiken used PEC pots for some years but eventually changed to Alpha as a problem developed with the PECs. I think it was intermittency, which would fit with dirt inside the pot, maybe slough off from the abrasion of the wiper on the trace.

The RV4 PECs are hot molded carbon. I haven't had any issues with them. Been using them a while. I think Clarostats are conductive plastic? I hated the way they felt.

EDIT: sorry David, didn't see your edit. Maybe I will call PEC and find out.

[Mark]

I can't say that I can hear the difference between particular pots. I haven't used PEC's I have used RV4's CTS, Alpha's and Burns pots.

As previously stated my first concern is taper, particularly with regards to tone controls, the question I ask myself is do the tone controls feel easy to use?

[Tone Lover]

If were going by feel I like the CTS from mojotone maybe its just the pretty brass on the knobs . Pretty things have always sparked my interest.
Bill

[M Fowler]

I like the 3/8" shaft x 3/8" length CTS for mojotone and Alpha for mojotone the best of all the ones I've use us as Bourns, Alpha, PEC, etc.

[Richie]

I think[and I could be wrong,just my guess] the mixup is in the name. A lot of times you see these type pots listed "precision" in the description. And PEC is a the brand name, made in Canada.
I grabbed a few pics from ebay listings.. All of the pots are mil spec RV4.

The name brands listed usually that made those are, Allen Bradley,Clarostat,and Ohmite. The early ones were made in USA. And later were made in Mexico. PEC is in Canada.

And I don't know where I read this, but Ken used the USA type, and didn't like the ones made in mexico. That there was a difference to them.


USA
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25K-25KOHM-POT- ... 2c77ec4242

Mexico
http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-B-Allen-Bradl ... 51c5a11249


USA Clarostat
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-CLAROSTAT-P ... 5d263e721f

Mexico Clarostat
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Clarostat-53C ... 33887fdf50


USA Ohmite
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100K-2-WATT-PAN ... 35df9d3482

[francospence]

I actually had the same issue as mentioned with PEC pots. I installed a set in my Express build, as I was trying to resolve noisy pot issues. The problem was conductive board, once I changed out the boards I still had an issue with the Pec pots. They were noisy when turned after a couple of months use, with no measured dc on the pots, I changed them out for a second set of Pecs. The same issue appeared after some time and got worse with more use. Cleaning the pots by removing the back and reassembling them cured the problem again for some time, but the problem reappeared and once again got worse over time. My conclusion was the carbon that wears off with use seemed to end up, maybe through being attracted, back on the trace. Cleaning the trace with a cotton bud and cleaner always fixed the problem for a month or two, but the more use, the more noise. I eventually installed the original CTS and Bourns pots and it's been noise free for years.

[stretch2011]

Richie: you never seem to fail!!!

Those ohmite from Canada seems nice. But seems like CTS is sticking!

Everyone, thanks for your inputs

[ToneMerc]

I do know that Randall Aiken used PEC pots for some years but eventually changed to Alpha as a problem developed with the PECs. I think it was intermittency, which would fit with dirt inside the pot, maybe slough off from the abrasion of the wiper on the trace.

See Aiken comments in this link, 4th question.

http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/technical-q-a

TM

[stretch2011]

Tonemerc: I read through some of those questions. While I understand his logic and answers I do question one of his statements. Polypropylene vs polyester. All the amp guys I know personally choose polyester over polypropylene saying they sound better.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Only problem I've experienced with pec's is that they absolutley do not like repeated soldering and desoldering on the lugs. I only use them when I'm building a proven design that I'm gonna do once and do right. Too expensive to throw to the dogs of a science project anyway but they're great pots in their own right. Made in Canada for sure. Hell alphas are just about as sensitive for repeated tweaking, only difference is the alphas tend to just fail in those conditions where pec's will drift in strange ways. I like alphas better for certain things tweaking or not, gotta spend the time to find the right ingredients to make a recipe