It's been a while since I posted here. I'm fixing a 5E3 guitar amp clone for a friend. It had a bad hum, which I finally traced to a bad "shorting" jack (is there such a thing as a good one?).
Along the way it seemed a good time to replace the volume controls.
I've got a pair of Clarostat 2M linear pots. If I have it right you can taper these with a 1M resistor from the wiper to ground and get something resembling an audio taper.
So far so good.
The catch is that the Clarostat pots are 60 years old if they are a day. They were salvaged from a pristine piece of late 50's Tektronix test gear. Heavy greenish plastic with a mirror shiny metal case. They look brand new.
Can I trust a component this old to last? They measure out OK.
Thanks
Along the way it seemed a good time to replace the volume controls.
I've got a pair of Clarostat 2M linear pots. If I have it right you can taper these with a 1M resistor from the wiper to ground and get something resembling an audio taper.
So far so good.
The catch is that the Clarostat pots are 60 years old if they are a day. They were salvaged from a pristine piece of late 50's Tektronix test gear. Heavy greenish plastic with a mirror shiny metal case. They look brand new.
Can I trust a component this old to last? They measure out OK.
Thanks
Personally I would have no fears about using old Clarostat controls. I've done so myself. Not so sure about the ersatz taper fix since I've never tried it. It probably won't matter much if it's a tone control. The Clarastat pots are far better made then the imported chicom junk sold today. I've seen some nice Japanese Alps pots pretty cheap on eBay from China, assuming they're not poor knock offs. So be careful.
They seem to work OK. I ended up using a 1.8M resistor for the taper. It's good enough for the purpose, and gives more control in the "quiet" range which is what was wanted here. They were a little scratchy at first then got quiet after some working. Considering they are only slightly younger than me that's good enough.
I've never worked on a guitar amp before, I'm amazed how much sound comes out of how few watts. Also that at full volume it feeds back through tube microphonics giving that "I forgot the chord so I kicked the amp" effect I've heard before.
I've never worked on a guitar amp before, I'm amazed how much sound comes out of how few watts. Also that at full volume it feeds back through tube microphonics giving that "I forgot the chord so I kicked the amp" effect I've heard before.