Alpha pots - Tayda vs Small Bear

[alanp]

Shipping is the number one, ultra top reason why I try to not order from Smallbear, PPP, or small shops in the USA.

Shipping is utterly brutal. Shipping from the UK is normally pain-inducing, as well.

DIYGP-AU's shipping is usually quite reasonable, as is Tayda.

Disclaimer: stingy bastard.

[juansolo]

Fascinating! I'm still getting back into pedal making after a ~10 year gap so I'm sticking with the cheap for now (grad student budget, woo), but I'm glad to know that better parts exist. I doubt I'll swap the pots in the pedals I already have made, but for future reference maybe I'll try to budget the extra 75 cents a pot to get the "good stuff".

Honestly, the Tayda alphas are probably just fine and I've never heard of people having issues with them so it's probably not worthy the extra cash unless you are super picky or building commercially. My biggest issue using Tayda Alphas for personal builds is that they never seem to have all the values I need and I don't particular like mixing them with the other alphas due to the difference it torque and smaller shaft diameter. Hopefully I didn't come off like a cork sniffer.

Alpha pots are the only thing we still get from Tayda. Been using them for years and years and *touches wood* never had any big issues with them.

[culturejam]

Alpha pots are the only thing we still get from Tayda. Been using them for years and years and *touches wood* never had any big issues with them.

Pretty much the same here. Occasionally I'll get box caps if I only need a value or two. And I have some 0805 resistors from there, which seem to be okay at least for hobby use (tolerance seems pretty tight).

I think the pots are just fine. Seeing them opened up shows they are *different* from the Smallbear pots, but I'm not convinced yet that different=shitty.

[matmosphere]

I agree that the pots are fine. Honestly there resistors always check out for me too. Part of me thinks if I were doing this as a ligit business that I'd be crazy to not use their resistors because they are really cheap and they do the job. Although I guess if I were buying in large enough quantities it would be about the same.

[pickdropper]

I agree that the pots are fine. Honestly there resistors always check out for me too. Part of me thinks if I were doing this as a ligit business that I'd be crazy to not use their resistors because they are really cheap and they do the job. Although I guess if I were buying in large enough quantities it would be about the same.

I think anybody building pedals as a business is generally wise to avoid Tayda parts.  They don't use vetted suppliers like the bigger companies (Mouser, Digikey, Allied, etc) do.  For something like resistors in particular, the cost scales down considerably even with moderate volumes so the price difference in minimized and you get a higher quality part.

[matmosphere]

Nah, I get all of that totally. But honestly I've never had a single resistor from them be out of spec. I generally check them all as I populate so I can try to be sure. The thin leads are a bummer though.

However if I did ever decide to do this commercially I would not use Tayda parts. I've only ever sold a few builds to friends though, and always stuff that I used for a while myself so I knew all was good.

[pickdropper]

Nah, I get all of that totally. But honestly I've never had a single resistor from them be out of spec. I generally check them all as I populate so I can try to be sure. The thin leads are a bummer though.

However if I did ever decide to do this commercially I would not use Tayda parts. I've only ever sold a few builds to friends though, and always stuff that I used for a while myself so I knew all was good.

Yeah, that makes sense.  I wasn't digging on you, just trying to highlight that, in reasonable quantities, you don't really need to compromise on the Tayda resistors as the cost difference flattens out a bit.

[chromesphere]

which explains how Tayda is able to sell theirs for less than half of the other guys.

Agreed Jon, except for one thing.  As someone that has seen first hand pricing from alpha Taiwan to pit against Tayda i can tell you, these guys must have practically ZERO overheads.  Absolute MINIMUM margins. I have a pretty good idea of what they buy for and sell for and its almost impossible for anyone in a developed first world country (with develop first world bills to pay) to compete with them. 

[somnif]

I know they're a thai company, and shipments from them Used to (several years ago) actually get shipped from Thailand, but now they all seem to come from Colorado (for US orders anyway). Much more convenient, certainly, but it must also increase their costs.

[Stomptown]

which explains how Tayda is able to sell theirs for less than half of the other guys.

Agreed Jon, except for one thing.  As someone that has seen first hand pricing from alpha Taiwan to pit against Tayda i can tell you, these guys must have practically ZERO overheads.  Absolute MINIMUM margins. I have a pretty good idea of what they buy for and sell for and its almost impossible for anyone in a developed first world country (with develop first world bills to pay) to compete with them.

Man that's crazy. Just one more reason I'd rather not buy from them...

[Muadzin]

Nah, I get all of that totally. But honestly I've never had a single resistor from them be out of spec. I generally check them all as I populate so I can try to be sure. The thin leads are a bummer though.

I quite like those thin leads. Super easy to bend, never had one break off. I can even squeeze them in flat on layouts that require smaller resistors. I could never do that with thicker leads. In fact whenever I come across a resistor with thick leads I feel like I'm seeing a dinosaur. Like do they still make these?

And I always check them with a DMM beforehand, they always check out.

[chromesphere]

Not a fan of the thin leads personally...Breadboarding, soldering offboard (CLR's etc).  I Also find thin leads (specifically tayda) snap more easily then most other thicker leaded resistors i've used.  Just me though, YMMV

[pickdropper]

which explains how Tayda is able to sell theirs for less than half of the other guys.

Agreed Jon, except for one thing.  As someone that has seen first hand pricing from alpha Taiwan to pit against Tayda i can tell you, these guys must have practically ZERO overheads.  Absolute MINIMUM margins. I have a pretty good idea of what they buy for and sell for and its almost impossible for anyone in a developed first world country (with develop first world bills to pay) to compete with them.

You are likely correct about them having low labor overhead (although that's actually changing a bit in China).

This is all conjecture, but I suspect that their primary cost savings is that they use a combination of non-standard supply chain from non-vetted suppliers and lower cost/quality parts.  China has a plethora of component distributors, not all of which pay very close attention to the parts they are shuffling around.  When through-hole FETs were discontinued, I asked a consultant I work with in China to go directly to some of the better local suppliers (that actually had a store front) to source some for me.  I got a pile of parts that were either out of spec and/or relabeled.  I've never run into a comparable situation from Mouser, Digikey, Farnell or any of the other standard suppliers.

Over the years from Tayda, I've gotten a number of parts that were out of spec, not what they were sold as, or (more commonly) marked in a way inconsistent with how I've receive them from other suppliers (assuming the same manufacturer).  I suspect they get others parts from whatever parts broker they can get them at the cheapest price they can get them.  Others, they may get cheaper from the manufacturer because they are slightly different than the normal parts for one reason or another.

It's not that uncommon of an approach, but it's important for the customer to understand that the parts they buy could be:

1.)  Slightly different in a non-important way than similar parts from most other suppliers (IE: .235" vs .25" shaft size on *some* of the Alpha pots, which I find annoying).

2.)  Slightly out of spec (or sometimes wildly in the case of their diodes).

3.)  Marked differently than they should be, indicated that they might be fake or somehow non-standard (somewhat common with their ICs).  Often these work anyway, but sometimes sound different.

4.)  Lower quality albeit with a correspondingly much lower price (resistors, sockets, almost all hardware they carry).  This might be a worthwhile trade off for some hobbyists.

I've bought stuff there in the past and, for personal use, will probably buy certain things there in the future.  I just think it's important to understand the risks associated with it.

[aion]

One solution for the shaft diameter is using heat shrink on the shaft. A bit of a hassle, but maybe a hassle that is worth 75 cents per pot. It'll also hold the set screw a lot better than just screw-against-bare-shaft.

[stringsthings]

Excellent idea!  I recently ordered a bunch of heat shrink.  Will have to try this.