Alpha Pots

[bossaholic]

Has anyone heard of them?

I bought some off of Ebay. I am a couple of days away from wiring up my Springsteen clone and thought I would see if there was any feedback on them first.

Thanks!

[Loudog99]

I've used ALPHA pots on several projects and they seem well made, work as expected, and are available for a real low price. However, I just used a set of CTS pots on my SX SST and these are VERY nice for about $6.00 per pot. Your choice. Either way, the Alpha pots will work nicely.

Be sure to sand the back of the pots with 200 to 400 grit paper to remove the waxy film that they seem to have on the back. This will help while you are trying to solder your grounds to the backs of the pots.

Lou

[zag1]

Originally Posted by Loudog99

I've used ALPHA pots on several projects and they seem well made, work as expected, and are available for a real low price. However, I just used a set of CTS pots on my SX SST and these are VERY nice for about $6.00 per pot. Your choice. Either way, the Alpha pots will work nicely.

Be sure to sand the back of the pots with 200 to 400 grit paper to remove the waxy film that they seem to have on the back. This will help while you are trying to solder your grounds to the backs of the pots.

Lou

Alphas came in my CV '50s Tele. No problems there. I've got CTS in my Strat. Also good as you know. But come on guys, don't pay that kind of price ($6)for pots when you can get them for considerably less. Shop like women folk do.

[Jammin'John1]

They are good & cheap.
They are also kinda small.

JJ

[jlerhun]

Originally Posted by Jammin'John1

They are also kinda small.

It depends on the model. The ones in my CV are 24mm in diameter, quite big compared to the push-pull that is going to replace it.

By the way, there are several "Alpha" companies making pots, i suppose that we're talking about the taiwanese one :
http://www.alphapotentiometers.net/
http://www.hktdc.com/em/hongkongalphacomltd
http://www.taiwanalpha.com/en/product.htm
And you can get'em for half a buck apiece from Futurlec !

[PaddyWagon]

Alphas are great if you don't have a lot of space, I've used them on a stompbox that had 5 of them crammed into the enclosure and on my tele project where I need a little squeeze room for some extra "series" wiring.

The others seem a little more sturdy (which explains the size) but neither one is about to break off even during your most violent volume swell antics

[jefrs]

Alpha are good, the fitting of the large 'standard' ones are metric and a little smaller than CTS, but are available short, medium and long. Unlike CTS they are available as linear and log, and they do push-pull too. They have split splined knob shafts. I don't know about different makes, I suspect they are a generic 'type', the ones I've used have 'ALPHA' stamped in caps on the back. Whilst CTS are a little more robust looking and offer 'funny' pots like no-load and TBX and S1, they don't have the full range of values, and I've never had problems with Alpha. There again, I've never found them that cheap, there may well be different grades available.

[kp8]

They are kinda tight tho aren't they? Not as easy to swell on as CTS i find.

[boneyguy]

I bought Alpha pots from GFS once. The quality is fine but the shaft diameter is narrower, the same diameter as on the mini pots. The problem was GFS didn't ship me any of the nuts and washers with the pots. Fortunately I had some around left over from removing mini pots out of guitars.

So be warned: small shaft diameter (at least on the ones I have)

[yegbert]

Originally Posted by kp8

They are kinda tight tho aren't they? Not as easy to swell on as CTS i find.

I bought four of the larger (24mm) Alpha pots from Antique Electronics. They are at least as stiff turning as the flat bottom CTS pots. And I pulled some out of one Tele (my '97 Protone Thinline I think) which look very similar and were also stiff turning; I assume they are also Alpha pots.

I've experimented with lubricating one of those that I pulled from the old Tele as well as a flat bottom CTS pot. I bent back the four tabs that hold the pot case together and disassembled them in order to efficiently and effectively lube the parts that contact where they rotate. Doing that, the CTS flat bottom pot loosened up immediately. The Alpha pot didn't. Then I realized that the Alpha was stiff in the area where the inner shaft rotates within its sleeve, a part that I could not easily disassemble. I sprayed some lube there and it didn't loosen it up immediately, but I let it sit for a while and it had loosened up.

I don't know how long it took to for the lube to seep into that tight fitting sleeve and loosen up the mechanism. I had given up and let them sit for a month or two before I realized it had loosened up.

Unfortunately, the four new ones I bought I had already installed in my Squier Tele Custom before I realized their stiffness, and so I plan to disassemble that pickguard assembly to deal with them again. This time I'll try to measure how long it takes for the lube to seep in and loosen them up.

I also noticed the difficulty in soldering to the bottoms. I sanded the bottoms some but apparently not enough. When I take them out again I'm going to sand them some more.

If you can deal with the stiff turning and difficulty in soldering, they are surely cheaper than the CTS pots so they may be worth your while. I don't have either of those problems in using the dimple bottom CTS pots, so I'd rather pay the $5-$6 apiece for those and be able to use them immediately. My time is usually worth more than the savings with the 24mm Alphas.

[yegbert]

I pulled my Custom apart again to try lubricating the stiff Alpha pots. Having figured out that the stiffness is in the shaft itself, I focused on trying to get some lube down inside the shaft. I didn't seem to help much.

It might loosen with time, I don't know.

But my other problem, that of difficulty in soldering to the bottoms, I couldn't overcome. I even have a more powerful soldering gun this time and that didn't seem to help much.

And I decided I wanted to try 250K pots anyway. So I replaced my 500K Alphas with 250K CTS pots. Those were very easy to solder to, turn very easy right off the shelf, and I like the way it sounds with them.

[musicalmartin]

I fit both .Cant say there is any difference really.Never had any turning problems at all .I have had problems with an SX minipot .I now fit full size alphas mostly .