Cermet vs plastic pots..

[Paul Schreiber]

The issue is temperature drift, and stability over time (say 5 years). If you have to get a 'cheapie' pot, BE SURE it's conductive plastic.

Stay away from the 70 cent Mouser carbon pots. 3-5 years from now, you will have noisy pots that drift.

There is nothing wrong with conductive plastic. Cermet pots (used in MOTM and EMu modulars) have 10 times
less temperature drift than conductive plastic. They also tend to 'feel' better. They also have about 10 times
more resistance stability over time (years). It's just the best pot you can get.

NEVER use anything on VCO tuning pots but cermet. All the temperature compensation in the VCO will be
worthless if the tuning pots are drifting all over.

Now, in the older Moog stuff (modulars and Minimoog) what was used was called an Allen-Bradley Type J pot
(which you can still get). These are either carbon or wirewound. What makes them different (they are about $7
now) is that they are fully sealed against moisture and dust. They have stainless steel shafts. This is NOT the
same construction as the 'open frame' Mouser stuff.

Why does a pot get noisy? #1: dust #2 moisture.

Paul Schreiber
Synthesis Technology