Vintage Asylum

Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time.

Return to Vintage Asylum


Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

Switches (Old School)

67.255.95.208

Posted on August 25, 2015 at 14:28:42
Posts: 1253
Location: Maine
Joined: August 16, 2011
Hi, Heathkit, Dynaco, Scott, and many others used these little cheap slide switches with a black or dark brown fingertip slider that are still around and dirt cheap. Without resorting to using a silver plated toggle which I have found in the past, is there a switch somewhere to look like the old ones and mount in the same holes that have more of a state of the art quality than the old cheapos? Has anyone tried to sonically improve this little switch and keep the same look? And I guess the next question is where to get um.......thanks for any info...Mark Korda

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
RE: Switches (Old School), posted on August 25, 2015 at 19:43:41
Eli Duttman
Audiophile

Posts: 10455
Location: Monroe Township, NJ
Joined: March 31, 2000
Plenty of current production slide switches are available.

Those old parts need cleaning with DeOxit. Spray 'em and work 'em. A good part of the time, contact cleaning makes the OEM switches work pretty darned well.


Eli D.

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on August 26, 2015 at 08:47:52
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
Try here. Michael has some great stuff. Sometimes even switches.

charles

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on August 27, 2015 at 07:52:57
dls123
Dealer

Posts: 1214
Location: Beautiful B.C.
Joined: April 15, 2003
Besides spraying them, sometimes the rear panel is loose. If you can remove the switch and gently squeeze the tabs holding the rear panel to the switch body with a needle nose pliers you can often tighten them and make the contacts work better. Be careful.....but it sometimes will solve iffy contact issues if the slider feels very loose.

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on August 29, 2015 at 05:46:26
Posts: 1253
Location: Maine
Joined: August 16, 2011
Hi Dis123, that was a good tip I never heard before. It will make for a fun easy experiment that doesn't cost anything. Thanks. Eli, I am going to rebuild 2 Dyna PAM-1 preamps. A while back I asked on another forum how to bypass the volume controls. One guy redrew on the schematic what I should do. The only way I would do this is to double check his directive with you. 1 12AX7 works as the tone control circuit. I don't know if it's possible. I'd like to send you the directions he gave me to get your thoughts if you have a second to take a peek. Windows 8 set me back to the stone age for forwarding something but I'm working on it. Thanks for the info. Airtime, in 1990 I made a passive switch box with volume controls. In that catalog you showed me something looked familiar.I had bought my ALPS Black Beauties 100k pots from Mike Percy. His inventory is great and just what I was looking for! He now resides in Brooklyn Maine, the most complete opposite from Brooklyn New York. It is truly (down east),a remote lobstering town near Acadia national park.I live 100 miles away and must make a road trip and not just for parts. There was no internet when I bought the pots but I still have Mikes paper catalog from the year. I reconized the same font or lettering he used which was unchanged. You guys are great and thanks again.....sincerely Mark Korda.

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on October 10, 2015 at 19:57:30
gkargreen
Audiophile

Posts: 1562
Location: DC
Joined: February 5, 2005
Mark, what you want are the C&K slide switches, they make a sealed gold-on-silver small signal switch that is a drop in physically the same for those old slide switches, I am looking in the near future of using them to replace mine on my scotts & fishers. The only problem is finding them, I haven't yet found a vendor for them, mouser does have a data sheet where you can get the manufactures part number, hope that helps...

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on October 11, 2015 at 09:00:02
Posts: 1253
Location: Maine
Joined: August 16, 2011
Gkargreen, those switches are just what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up. I'll look around for those and if I can find anything I'll get right back to you. I'm not an exspensive wire guy but those switches seem most important and if fit in the same fittings would be a fun soldering project that's not to hard......thanks again...Mark.

 

RE: Switches (Old School), posted on October 11, 2015 at 09:18:19
gkargreen
Audiophile

Posts: 1562
Location: DC
Joined: February 5, 2005
Mark, please be sure to let me know when you locate them, at one point I had the Mouser/distributor sheet that gave you the numbers for the proper switch, you could almost customize the switch according to size, characteristics (ie., DPDT, SPDT, etc.), sealed or no, small signal or large current, etc. If I find that sheet I will email it to you. The slide switches used in the vintage gear is just such crap, even with repeated cleaning the switches with still be noisy or work poorly so a good replacement is the way to go. I did get some chinese-made slide switches a while back on ebay, they were just what the doctor ordered except they were too small so I couldn't use them and thus the hunt still goes on!

 

Page processed in 0.027 seconds.