Micro pots

A little help please.
I seem to remember the body cavity of the Artist P bass is relatively shallow necessitating the need for micro or mini photometers.
Is there a decent make anyone here could recommend as I haven’t a clue what to look for.
TIA

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CTS make good mini pots. Also the Alpha pots are good. There is nothing wrong with smaller pots, they perform just as well as bigger pots.

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Thank you @terb

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Someone tried to tell me once that the small ones are designed as “trim pots” and so don’t have as long a useful life as bigger ones. My 11-12yo MFB 522 drum machine built with them says otherwise :eyes:

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I have a small Alpha on my #1 guitar since at least 10-12 years, and it’s still working fine. no relationship really between the size and the quality.

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Are you saying size doesn’t matter? :eyes:

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I’ve been saying that for years. No one’s asked for their money back so far. :kissing:

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Bourns makes great smaller pots and are available on Amazon, at least here in the states.
I have them everywhere the big ones don’t fit.

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All of the sought after manufacturers of full size pots make perfectly fine mini pots too; Bourns, Alpha, CTS, etc.

The only difference you may notice is feel, and that’s not guaranteed either.

I wouldn’t be worried about lifespan. If anything, any electrolytic cap on an onboard preamp is a more likely lifespan fail than a pot that you touch a few times a day.

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I don’t ever seem to find mini CTS pots (at least on Amazon or stew Mac here in the US). That’s why I went with Bourns.

I second not worrying about lifespan the way we all buy and sell basses. And if one does wear out, it’s a couple bucks and 15 minutes of mostly unscrewing and screwing.

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Managed to find CTS mini pots in Australia! Wonders will never cease.

So I’ve read about these orange drops ( capacitors ?)
Any recommendations please?

The big ones, lol.

I have been using Emerson paper in oil capacitors vs. ‘orange drop’.
I know, a capacitor is supposed to be a capacitor, but I swear I hear a positive difference with these puppies.

Seriously though for orange drop, there are really no brand names.

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I am still not sure why you see these big honking medium-high voltage capacitors in guitars, when a normal ceramic cap would probably be just fine. Oh well.

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Bigger is better, just ask Texas :wink:

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I love the apocryphal story about how when a Texas representative objected to Alaska being made a state, the pushback was a threat to make Alaska two states instead, so Texas would only be the third biggest.

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So something like this?

Ceramic Disc Capacitor for Guitar & Bass Tone Circuits - .022uf, .033uf & .047uf

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Yep. Unless I am missing something big about the amount of power generated by pickups, one of those shoud be fine. Any idea why there’s a giant capacitor trend in guitars, @terb?

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It’s just a matter of fashion. some guys believe that a 600v Orange Drop cap will sound better, that’s just false. For the power and voltage in a guitar, a standard cap works just as good. I use the standard polyester (MKT) 63v caps used in generic low-voltage applications, it works perfectly. A ceramic, polypropylene (MKP), mylar or anything will work as well. If really you want the more transparent filter ever, the reasonnable choice would be a low-voltage MKP. But the power is so low, that I really don’t believe there is any difference in performance for such an application.
(that’s very different on an amplifier, where the capacitors type and quality have a real impact on the sound and signal/noise ratio. The voltages are much higher, so the capacitors work on a very different range.)

Note that, the component that gives you the progressiveness on a tone control is not the capacitor, it’s the pot, depending on its taper. So my advice would be to spend more on the pots and less on the caps.

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Thank you gentlemen :+1:

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Reminded that the micro pots on some 2hp modular gear (the company is called 2hp) is absolute garbage. Across several modules so many felt harder to turn, scratchier/draggier, etc. They worked at least. Meanwhile my MFB 522, they all felt smooth and good. But anyway…


Big caps, yeah Mojotone went nuts on this Strat harness… :eyes:

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