Faceplate tweak - unclestu - Tweakers' Asylum

Faceplate tweak

Posted by unclestu (D) on July 5, 2015 at 20:26:35

A tweak for your faceplate. Most knobs are large and heavy and sit in a sintered bearing which has a lot of play. Most Pots ( not individually switched resistor networks) have spring loaded contacts. The wipers are usually have bent "fingers, which make contact with the conductive paint on the potentiometer wafer.

Because of the nature of the construction, the heavy knob can cause the shaft of the potentiometer to vibrate a little. You will not hear it as obvious distortion as the better pots have multiple fingers and any change in resistance is evened out.

You can reduce the vibration by placing an appropriate sized O ring over the knob and which lightly contacts the faceplate. That way the knob is being damped by the faceplate.

I use the old 3M tube dampers and it makes a significant difference in sound. Regular plumbing o rings sound dull and stifle dynamics. The 3M dampers are no longer available, unfortunately but open up a significant amount of dynamics and detail.

Scotch makes a VHB (very high bond tape) with a clear polyurethane backing similar to the material used in their dampers. I suppose you can cut a strip and use them to make a ring. Some o ring suppliers also make polyurethane rings, although the beauty of the #M product was that you could stretch them out from a 7/8 inch inside diameter to a 4 inch diameter and it would shrink back to original size after removal.

I suppose you could experiment with regular o ring sizes to get the proper tension, but those I tried could not compete with the 3m Stuff,

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Topic - Faceplate tweak - unclestu 20:26:35 07/05/15 (4)

RE: Faceplate tweak - Ugly 21:42:46 07/06/15 (1)

RE: Faceplate tweak - unclestu 17:27:57 07/07/15 (0)

RE: Faceplate tweak - rick_m 08:36:20 07/06/15 (0)

RE: Faceplate tweak - Ryelands 05:38:49 07/06/15 (0)

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