Easy drop-in pot upgrade?

[JohnnyT]

Now that my Crack w/ Speedball is running smoothly, I wanted to try tweaking a few things. First up is the potentiometer and I've read some have used pots such as TKD or PEC. I'd prefer something where I don't have to drill out the hole and I can use the same wiring.

I'm considering this Audio Note pot here: https://www.partsconnexion.com/ANVPOT-81914.html

or TKD:

https://www.partsconnexion.com/TKD-64187.html

They are both stated as 100K, so same as stock.

Would both of these work?

Thanks.

[Karl5150]

If you go with the AN potentiometer, be sure of the wiring. I seem to remember it not being the same as the stock potentiometer.
Karl

[JohnnyT]

If you go with the AN potentiometer, be sure of the wiring. I seem to remember it not being the same as the stock potentiometer.
Karl

Thanks. Will the TKD wire the same as stock? Its lugs are labeled 1, 2 or C.

So 1 is input, 2 is output (red or white for each channel) and C is ground (black)?

[Paul Birkeland]

For the TKD and AN pots, you just wire them up exactly the same way you'd wire up the stock pot.  Be careful not to get a balance pot (sometimes labeled with the MN taper), as those just won't work in this application.

[JohnnyT]

Great, thanks.

[Paul Joppa]

The TKD is an interesting control, technically. It's not a "potentiometer" in the normal sense, but rather an implementation of a classical stepped audio fader. Here's a note from TKD providing more information:

http://www.tkd-corp.com/otherpdf/Important_points_LADDER.pdf

[JohnnyT]

The TKD is an interesting control, technically. It's not a "potentiometer" in the normal sense, but rather an implementation of a classical stepped audio fader. Here's a note from TKD providing more information:

http://www.tkd-corp.com/otherpdf/Important_points_LADDER.pdf

Interesting. I went with TKD so I'll post the results when I can receive it and solder it in!

[JohnnyT]

For whoever is interested, I got the TKD 2CP-2511 volume fader and it was pretty simple to install. The TKD solder tabs are very easy to use, much like the stock pot. The mounting hole did need to be drilled out by about 0.5 - 1mm, very easy to do (I used a 3/8" twist drillbit, I checked that 5/16" was too small). A 9mm drill would've been perfect for a closer fit (or maybe 11/32"). I believe the TKD mounting uses a M9 thread. There was also a short plastic peg on the TKD, like the indexing pin on the stock pot, but I didn't need it. It came with 2 nuts so I used one internally to get the right spacing (so the knob doesn't stick out too far) and other nut to secure on the top. The shaft was 6mm just like stock so no problem using the same knob.

One obvious difference is that with the stock pot I usually stopped at 90° from zero before it got too loud. Now I can go up to 180°. Sound-wise, I can't say it's a huge improvement yet. What I do know is that the Crack with Speedball rocks my socks off! Every snare drum in Eric Clapton's "Pretending" is a beautiful little explosion in my head, as is the case with many other tracks.

Now I need to go check my solder joints again on the TRS jack...I used to get the loud pop but fixed that after finding an unsoldered black wire that was only crimped on at 12L. Now I don't get the pop but get some crackling noise when plugging in a HP jack when it's powered on. It crackles when the plug is halfway in. Other than that, there's no problems!

[Paul Joppa]

Thanks for posting! I suspected the rotation vs. volume would be different (and more proportional) - nice to have that confirmed. When/if you settle on how you like the sound, post again - it's conductive plastic and there is not a lot of consensus on how that compares with the usual carbon composite.