Source for good Blend/Balance pot please

[ashbass]

Where can I get some true blend/balance pots?

I got two audio taper blend/balance pots (250k, 500k) from StewMac some months ago and tried them this weekend. They are not blend pots, but stereo pots. A blend pot requires that one of the coupled pots has a reverse taper. These stewmac pots do not. When in the center postion, where both pups are supposed to be full on, one is full on and the other is barely audible. I can tell because I adjusted my switch to allow either pup to be cut out of the circuit entirely. So, when in the middle position, I cut each pup out of the circuit and was very dissapointed.

I tried swapping the input wires around. Always the same result.

So I'm looking for a source with for sure blend/balance pots that will for sure have both pups full on in the center postion and which will appropriately taper off either pup depending on which way the knob is turned off center.

Anyone?
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[frankfalbo]

Are you talking about these?

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel...ARCH_SPEC=4137

They're supposed to be 100% at center. I've got some blenders here if you need just a few, but I would call Stew Mac and complain/exchange them since they describe them as true blends. They need to know too.

Any chance something is happening in your audio path to load one of the pickups' center location? Have you checked them with a meter uninstalled? I've just never encountered that on a blend. I don't get them from Stew Mac, but they look like the ones I have.

[ashbass]

Those are the ones I bought.

I tried it with the neck pup attached to pot 1 and the bridge to pot 2. The bridge was at less than 10% volume in the center.

Then I switched the pups so the bridge was on pot 1 and the neck on pot 2. The neck now was at less than 10%.

Based on that experiment, I figure the problem is the pot. This behavior was evident in both the 250k and the 500k pots.

I'd need three total. Three 500k I should think as two guitars have dual humbuckers and the other has two hot p90s.

Here is what I see happening when I meter the pots. Instead of one pot being a reverse log, both are the same with the ramp up on the same side of the pot. For each pot, the full value of the pot was measured from the center lug to the outside right lug. Seems to me that a true blend would have one pot measure full from the center lug to the *left* outside lug as well. Right?

[frankfalbo]

I've got three Japanese Ibanez blends to give. They're 500K large sized. E-mail me if you want them, but I'd still say contact Stew Mac. If they got a mislabeled batch, then they'll probably gladly replace them for you.

Regarding the pickup that's 10% at center, does it ramp up to 100% and 0% from 5-10 and 5-0? In other words, does it behave simply like a normal audio pot on a 0-10 basis, with a center detent? And for the other side, is it working properly, where you're at 100% at center, and remain at a constant 100% from 5-10?

[ashbass]

On the same side of the pot for both pots, zero is on the outside and max (roughly) is at center detent. From center to the other outside lug is a small value.

for the 250k pot:
one part has 0-240k-ish on one side (tested while rotating knob) and 43k on the other side (not tested with rotating the knob. The other part has 0-220 on the same side as the first part, and 20ish on the other side.

The 500k pot I don't have numbers for but the resistance between the two parts is just silly. One part is 680+k and the other is 475 or so. Sheez.