Does a high quality metric pot exist?

[rastus11]

hi all,

ive searched these boards and asked around a few learned folk but still cant get a strong consensus. Does a good quality metric pot exist that is similar to CTS pots in quality? Alpha pots?
I have a beautiful ibanez as80 that im doing a complete re-wire to. If I go with CTS ill have to ream the holes out to accommodate them. Id rather not do this, but will if I have to. Look forward to your thoughts...

cheers

 

[Quill]

Bourns pots are not that popular, but I have a set in one guitar and I kinda like 'em. Maybe they are not as robust as one of the better CTS offerings ... I absolutely love the low resistance, and the taper is useful, smooth from 1 to about 8, then a quick jump up between 8 and 10, great for working a dimed tube amp. I don't know the model, it's the stock part in a PRS.

anyway, WD Music has a Bourns page, and there are some metric sizes.

 

[fuelie]

I found these but I'm not sure how they perform since I haven't tested them.

Metric Pots


*edit- Ha, Quill beat me to it although these are a different page on the WD site.

 

[MATTM]

Ream the holes. It's totally worth the effort.

 

[MATTM]

There is no metric pot that is near the quality, use ability, and tone of the premium 550k CTS pot. Now, there are a few lower end CTS pots that are in a similar league but, if your going to go through the trouble to replace the pots, do it right and do it once. Reaming the holes is easy and well worth it.

 

[NovaSDF]

I changed the pots in my Epi's to CTS - but I'm going to use metric pots for my Tele build. The reason is aesthetic, since I just happened to find an unusual set of knobs that are going to look fantastic on this particular guitar - that are unfortunately metric.

Because of that, I've been researching metric pots as well. I recently decided to go with Bourns, but haven't installed them yet as it's still a work in progress. Some people seem to like Alpha brand as well, but the reviews are mixed. Most of the reviews of Bourns I read seems pretty good - with the criticism mainly that they seemed stiffer than CTS pots (which is a preference thing - some people liked it more, some less.) It seems like Bourns and CTS tend to get the best reviews. If it weren't for the knobs I want to use, I would have stuck with CTS, but I'm not nervous about Bourns.

If you install the Bourns, let us know what you think of them.

 

[MrKensei]

I put a set of Japanese Alphas in a Jackson a few months ago, fantastic. Bought a spare to pull aprt and I was really impressed with the internals not far off the CTS pots I usually. use.
These same Japanese alphas came in mockingbird I recently let go and they were fantastic. I'd recommend them any day of the week.