Quality PET PEEVE

[sadowsky13]

I recently got a Mesa Roadster (1 Month ago). Have used it for a few practices and today was my second gig with it. I am really careful with my gear and take good care of it. Today I packed up the SUV to go to the gig. Got to the gig and noticed the reverb knob on the rear of the amp channel four broke off. Now obviosuly it must of been hit by some other gear while in the back of my vehicle. The Pet peeve is that I noticed the pot shaft was plastic. Other amps I have owned had metal shafts. I just found myself saying that for the amount of money I spent on the amp you would think the shafts would be more durable.

Just had to vent! Anyone else have this happen??

 

[phyrexia]

Maybe you should take better care of your $2000 amp. :lol:

Was the slipcover on it? Maybe that would have deflected whatever hit your knob. The new ones are padded and very nice.

 

[sadowsky13]

Maybe you should take better care of your $2000 amp. :lol:

Was the slipcover on it? Maybe that would have deflected whatever hit your knob. The new ones are padded and very nice.

slipcover was on it and it was one of the padded ones that has the pocket for the pedal board at the back and pedal board was in it with flat side towards the amp. Beats the hell out of me how it got hit but it did. Don't get me wrong I love the amp and used to think they are built like tanks I just find myself thinking this is supposed to be professional gear that is roadworthy and yet in one month I've got a broken knob. Not a big deal to fix but still peaved me off when I found it broken. Guess I will have to start thinking about a roadcase. Just ordered a new pot from Mesa.

 

[Sludgenutz]

My 1989 Mesa .50 Cal + has nylon pot shafts as well. I found out when I pulled the chassis for a look-see. I was not impressed. :roll:

 

[jdurso]

just my .02 but coming from an engineering (particular manufacturing/reliability) background, plastic sometimes is a better way to go than metal, especiallly in terms of longivity and reliability. plastics have way more elasticity than metals and arent prone to rust. also their elasticity lends itself to being able to withstand cyclical tension and torsion for long periods of time, where as metal is a very brittle material (especially aluminum) when exposed to the same cyclical tension or torsion. so unless manufacturers are using high strength aluminum, steel or titanium, a strong, durible plastic would be a better material to use for certain parts. also consider the cost of titanium or the weight of high strength steel and you'll see why manufacturers if using metals will almost always opt for low grade aluminum (more band for the buck). now in this case unless i saw the part (because i'm not too keen with building amps) i wouldnt be able to say whether plastic would have been the right way to go, but what i'm trying to get across is the fact plastics shouldnt always be looked at as cheap or metals always looked at as durable.

 

[Kaz]

just my .02 but coming from an engineering (particular manufacturing/reliability) background, plastic sometimes is a better way to go than metal, especiallly in terms of longivity and reliability. plastics have way more elasticity than metals and arent prone to rust. also their elasticity lends itself to being able to withstand cyclical tension and torsion for long periods of time, where as metal is a very brittle material (especially aluminum) when exposed to the same cyclical tension or torsion. so unless manufacturers are using high strength aluminum, steel or titanium, a strong, durible plastic would be a better material to use for certain parts. also consider the cost of titanium or the weight of high strength steel and you'll see why manufacturers if using metals will almost always opt for low grade aluminum (more band for the buck). now in this case unless i saw the part (because i'm not too keen with building amps) i wouldnt be able to say whether plastic would have been the right way to go, but what i'm trying to get across is the fact plastics shouldnt always be looked at as cheap or metals always looked at as durable.

+1

Btw, Durso, how's the TimeFactor treatin' ya?

 

[Don]

My Express is my only amp with plastic pot shafts and it can be considered a negative thing, however, Durso is correct in what he said.

Also, pots with plastic shafts isolate the knobs electrically. On an amp that has metal knobs this is important and might even be required by US and European regulations.

Many years ago I tried to crank up the volume on a friend's amp. I didn't let go of my guitar's strings first and got zapped through the set screw on a plastic knob because one of our amps wasn't grounded properly.

I still wouldn't want pots with plastic shafts on a guitar, though!

 

[CudBucket]

just my .02 but coming from an engineering (particular manufacturing/reliability) background, plastic sometimes is a better way to go than metal, especiallly in terms of longivity and reliability. plastics have way more elasticity than metals and arent prone to rust. also their elasticity lends itself to being able to withstand cyclical tension and torsion for long periods of time, where as metal is a very brittle material (especially aluminum) when exposed to the same cyclical tension or torsion. so unless manufacturers are using high strength aluminum, steel or titanium, a strong, durible plastic would be a better material to use for certain parts. also consider the cost of titanium or the weight of high strength steel and you'll see why manufacturers if using metals will almost always opt for low grade aluminum (more band for the buck). now in this case unless i saw the part (because i'm not too keen with building amps) i wouldnt be able to say whether plastic would have been the right way to go, but what i'm trying to get across is the fact plastics shouldnt always be looked at as cheap or metals always looked at as durable.

+1

Would you rather have a $ 0.25 pot shaft break or a metal one that doesn't give and instead results in cracking your PCB?

 

[Don]

Would you rather have a $ 0.25 pot shaft break or a metal one that doesn't give and instead results in cracking your PCB?

The pots on my Boogie are not mounted to the PCB (are any on Boogies?). They're mounted to the chassis.

I'd prefer that a pot shaft to break rather than the chassis get damaged though.

 

[jdurso]

just my .02 but coming from an engineering (particular manufacturing/reliability) background, plastic sometimes is a better way to go than metal, especiallly in terms of longivity and reliability. plastics have way more elasticity than metals and arent prone to rust. also their elasticity lends itself to being able to withstand cyclical tension and torsion for long periods of time, where as metal is a very brittle material (especially aluminum) when exposed to the same cyclical tension or torsion. so unless manufacturers are using high strength aluminum, steel or titanium, a strong, durible plastic would be a better material to use for certain parts. also consider the cost of titanium or the weight of high strength steel and you'll see why manufacturers if using metals will almost always opt for low grade aluminum (more band for the buck). now in this case unless i saw the part (because i'm not too keen with building amps) i wouldnt be able to say whether plastic would have been the right way to go, but what i'm trying to get across is the fact plastics shouldnt always be looked at as cheap or metals always looked at as durable.

+1

Btw, Durso, how's the TimeFactor treatin' ya?

honestly havent had as much time with my rig as i'd like between the whole 4th weekend and a lot of travelling for business i've only gotten to deeply edit a patch or two. i dont like the presets out of the box but when i have had the time to sit with it i've loved the sounds ive been able to create. i really want to get an expression pedal now toi experiment with that.

 

[phyrexia]

just my .02 but coming from an engineering (particular manufacturing/reliability) background, plastic sometimes is a better way to go than metal, especiallly in terms of longivity and reliability. plastics have way more elasticity than metals and arent prone to rust. also their elasticity lends itself to being able to withstand cyclical tension and torsion for long periods of time, where as metal is a very brittle material (especially aluminum) when exposed to the same cyclical tension or torsion. so unless manufacturers are using high strength aluminum, steel or titanium, a strong, durible plastic would be a better material to use for certain parts. also consider the cost of titanium or the weight of high strength steel and you'll see why manufacturers if using metals will almost always opt for low grade aluminum (more band for the buck). now in this case unless i saw the part (because i'm not too keen with building amps) i wouldnt be able to say whether plastic would have been the right way to go, but what i'm trying to get across is the fact plastics shouldnt always be looked at as cheap or metals always looked at as durable.