Tonefiend Forum

Has anyone put wheel style pots (Jaguar etc) or slider type in a build, what sorts are available, and where could I get some?

I've had a lovely Maverick X-1 for a decade, and it has the gorgeous 'ergonomic' pots, which are laid on their sides in a bracket, and show through well placed holes under the bridge pup.

I'm surprised other companies haven't taken this on board.

It set me to wondering about unconventional controls which might be used instead of run of the mill pots.

I was thinking of ripping out the 'scratching' pad from an old Yamaha keyboard (if it's not a stupid idea), though it might be a midi controller.

Got any ideas for something odd?

Well, I don't have many answers on hand, but I am often asking this question so I'm glad you brought it up. There are definitely thousands of options out there, but they can be laborious to search through. However, I'd suggest starting with one of the huge online electronics shops like Maplin: https://www.maplin.co.uk/buy-components/resistors/potentiometers. Once you find something you like, you can google it and find a source closer to home. You can also go to the websites of manufacturers like Bourns and see what you can find. https://www.bourns.com/ProductFamily.aspx?name=potentiometers A lot of those really useful but unconventional pots are hard to find, but if you can get the parts numbers, then your usual source can probably special order a few for you.

And if you're going through that work, it's generally advisable to get the Bourns or a similar high-quality part. Cheep wheel/slide pots are notorious for breaking - and a hassle to replace.

yeah, I'm the same. With components or switches, I always pick up a couple of everything and throw the extras in the big box. I did some searching for slide pots a year or so ago and I found some great options. Well, great in theory, but the problem is that most of them are designed to be mounted on the board so if you want to install them on the guitar and run lines to your circuit board or other pots/outputs, then you have to deal with soldering near invisible pins and will probably have to superglue the pots to a custom pickguard or straight into the cavity. So it's rarely an 'acceptable' option in my opinion. For example some of the sliding pots here: https://www.bourns.com/ProAudio.aspx?name=pamm or here: https://www2.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?N=16330845 are the perfect size for setting next to the pickups, but it would be extremely difficult to connect and mount them securely enough without doing some major cosmetic work to the guitar. So..... I'm excited to hear what you find. 🙂