Tayda... What's safe to buy there vs. what to avoid???

[Leevibe]

I've been on the forum for a short while now and have gained a wealth of insight from this community already. Thanks all!

Before joining here, I had never heard of Tayda. I keep thinking I will give them a try but I keep running into posts referencing their sketchiness. For example, Paul's picture of the one-legged tropical fish cap (epcos thread). I kind of suspect that the higher percentage of what they sell isn't going to cut it for me, but maybe there are a few gems.

I have a pretty distinct division in my mind about parts that are OK to use for my own personal builds vs. pedals I sell or build for good friends. Stuff for myself tends to be experimental / exploratory so if a part is less than reliable or has a fit/finish problem, I may use it anyway because I'm confident I can fix it if it fails. I feel completely different about stuff I intend to sell or give away. I tend to want that stuff to be bulletproof.

Given that sentiment, what items does Tayda sell that you would consider:

1. Rock-solid, kick it down a flight of stairs, sounds/looks/feels good? Ship it!

2. Useable for your own builds and experiments but doesn't cut it when your reputation is on the line

3. The jury is out. Seems like they could be good parts but we need more time/experience with them

4. Total junk! Not worth the baggies they came in


I would love to know your thoughts on this! So far, here is the little bit I've gathered:

1. (rock solid) LED's

2. (personal builds) switches, certain IC's, enclosures, caps & resistors, molex connectors

3. (time will tell) alpha pots

4. (utter crap) too much to list

If I were to put in an order today, I would feel safe buying LED's and molex connectors. What should be added (or subtracted) from my shopping list?

[peAk]

I am still on the fence about the pots

Not sure if I will order pots from there again.

[RobA]

No: resistors, caps, inductors, knobs (most), switches, connectors, voltage regulators, I'm sure I can think of more

Yes: LED's, enclosures, trim pots, pin headers, most IC's, pots, diodes.

Maybe: Ge diodes, wire, transistors, IC's

The Ge diodes I have from them are all good and mostly in spec (> 90%). Wire is marginal but usable and is OK compared to lots of wire from other sources. I've had two sets of fake JFET's and one possible set of fake op-amps (JRC4558). Fake JFET's are a risk nearly everywhere now. Saying that, most of the JFET's I've purchased from them are real and perfectly good. The two sets that were fake were very obviously fake. The op-amps could be real, but they certainly don't look like any JRC part I've ever seen.

Here's the thing about the pots. They are Alpha pots. The 9mm are pretty good and I'd use them in a commercial build. They 16mm are 16mm Alpha pots and are crap. My opinion is that the 16mm and 24mm Alpha pots are junk no matter where you buy them. I wouldn't put them in a commercial build no matter where I got them from. I do use them in my own pedals, but I won't let them anywhere near my guitars.

Their knobs are mostly cheap crap. But, if you are looking for little rubbery synth like knobs, the cheap ones they carry are actually OK. At this point, I stick with Smallbear for knobs and dream about finding a giant stock of NOS knobs manufactured when knobs weren't pathetic junk.

[ddog]

Whats wrong with their resistors/caps?

Is it an aesthetic issue (like small leads) or a numerical issue (out of spec/ huge tolerance). Apparently I've heard the ceramic caps are bad, but I am not sure what makes them bad

[midwayfair]

I'd use the following in anything:

Their resistors are fine if you don't mind thin leads. They're the ONLY reasonable way to get small quantities. I don't know what anyone's problem with their resistors is.

Silicon diodes are all fine.

Most schottky diodes, except I think the BAT41s, which seem to have the wrong Fv. I get 1N5817s and 1N60Ps from them all the time.

Cheap, common transistors -- 2N3904, for instance. Their BC108s and 109s are the same newer production ones sold everywhere.

I cheap, common ICs -- I sincerely doubt you will ever find a fake 4558 or 072 in their stock. Their Burr Brown stuff has been real from what I've been able to gather, but obviously you have to be careful with higher-value stuff like that.

I badmouth their FETs, but the fact is if you just need a generic FET, for a buffer or something, most of the time it's fine. I think we've more or less decided that they're out of spec, rather than necessarily fake. The J201s for instance are mostly too low gain, but hey, there's a use for that -- test them and match them up to stock specs for other FETs. Just don't design an effect using their J201s (oops!). But they aren't any cheaper than reliable sources, so why bother?

There's nothing wrong with their box caps.

I've been unable to find anything wrong with their tantalum caps.

Their multilayer ceramics caps are fine. I use them all the time in my mini builds.

I like their sockets; their single in line ones are actually a better fit for transistors than ones I've gotten elsewhere and paid more for.

Their 4Site enclosures are the same thing you'd get elsewhere. But I get all my enclosures from PPP because it's just not that much more (a few bucks?) and they come powdercoated.

Their toggles are fine in my experience as long as you aren't reheating and resoldering a bunch. They're not mountain switches, but neither are anyone else's, and you're only paying a dollar instead of five.

I feel like it's easier to ask about a specific component than to pick and choose about stuff. But I recently stopped using Tayda for most stuff ... and it had more to do with them moving into PCBs and using the names of the projects they're cloning than the quality of parts. Even so, I just give most of my business to Smallbear now because why both having to think about whether something is going to work?

[gtr2]

The 3362P trimmers are the best deal anywhere.


Josh

[GermanCdn]

I'll echo Jon's comments.

Resistors are fine (again, unless you have an issue with thinner leads).  I've ordered thousands of resistors from them and only had one bag test out of spec, and I'm pretty sure they came from factory out of spec (i.e. 200k resistors marked as 220k), because they all tested exactly the same.  So, that was 20 resistors out of 10,000+ I've ordered from them.  Pretty good average.

Box caps are fine, and test well.

The new MLCC caps are very nice.

Ceramic caps - meh, not so hot, can't measure them because my DMM won't go down that low, but then again how many values do you really use (47p, 51p, 100p, 220p, that's really about it) on a regular basis.

Electros - have had some measure significantly out of spec, probably about 10% of the time.

Toggle switches - good value for the money, will not take three hits from the soldering iron, so if you're going to use them to compare various values, socket them.  There are better switches out there, there are also a lot worse.

Opamps - had really good success with the typical ones we use, including PT2399.  Burr Browns are the real thing, as are the TC1044.

Sockets - SIL are great, DIP are good.  Buy the cheap spring leaf DIPs instead of the machined ones.

Diodes - what Jon said

Stranded wire - nice, and good price

Solid wire - same

Knobs - hit and miss.  I like their Marshall style, not crazy about their Davies clones (mostly because of set screw issues).

Pots - like the split shaft and the PCB mount.  Not completely sold on the new solid shaft solder lugs - the diameter of the shaft is definitely on the upper end of the allowable tolerance.  Most pots I've purchased from them fall into +/- 5% of measured tolerance; don't think I've had any exceed 10% off spec.

FETS - I've had better success elsewhere, including random ebay sellers, and their price on those isn't so great that you couldn't go buy from somewhere else.

Enclosures are fine, but I find that by the time I do the finish myself, I've already paid more than I would from PPP, so I don't order too many from Tayda anymore.

Stomps are fine, though I've used them in limited numbers, I buy my 3PDTs elsewhere for a better price.

LEDs are fine, LED bezels are hit and miss, it's a good idea to have a reamer around to clean up the bottom of the bezels.

[peAk]

I just give most of my business to Smallbear now because why both having to think about whether something is going to work?

yeah, this is kind of how I feel.

[RobA]

Whats wrong with their resistors/caps?

Is it an aesthetic issue (like small leads) or a numerical issue (out of spec/ huge tolerance). Apparently I've heard the ceramic caps are bad, but I am not sure what makes them bad

There's more to the crapness of their resistors than just the thin leads. The leads also aren't well coated and don't solder well. They resistors themselves are flimsy. I've measured some and they measured low and out of spec. But, the main point is that you can get better resistors for less money buying in the 200 packs of the Xicons. After just a few orders, you'll have all the resistors you need for a long time and the total cost will be less.

Their MLCC's aren't even specified as to what type they are. It depends on what you are using them for, but if you follow the spec sheets and application notes, most IC's will call for a specific type of cap (power circuits often need X5R or X7R at least) and the recommended type for audio is C0G. The point that Tayda doesn't tell you what they are makes them unusable for me.

[micromegas]

The 3362P trimmers are the best deal anywhere.


Josh

I read that they are made by Alpha, same quality as the ones made by Bourns?

[playpunk]

Hey RobA - what Pots do you use in your effects if not Alpha's? CTS full size?

[RobA]

Hey RobA - what Pots do you use in your effects if not Alpha's? CTS full size?

For my own pedals, I do use the Alpha 16mm, although I'm pretty much moving to the 9mm because the quality seems better to me. From my experience with them so far, I would use the 9mm Alpha's in a commercial build.

The problems I've had with the Alpha 16mm and 24mm is inconsistent taper and dead spots, particularly at the edges of the rotation. I've had a couple that have failed with at most two years of use as well. I haven't had that kind of issue with any other pot.

For my guitars, I mainly use Bourns pots and I think the quality is pretty good on these. My favorite pots I've got are these Vishay/Sfernice things I got for a headphone amp build. They are great but they cost way too much to buy and put in something on the floor (or for anything that needs more than a couple of knobs).

[culturejam]

Here's what I buy from Tayda:

Box Caps
9mm pots PCB pots
Right-Angle PCB pots
3362p clone trimmers
Audio ICs (dual and quad op amps, OTA, PT2399)
Charge pumps
LDRs
LEDs
DIP switches
Enclosures

[aion]

I avoid any of Tayda's hardware - switches and jacks especially. Their 3PDTs seem to be okay, never had any issues, but I'm usually in the "better safe than sorry" camp when it comes to 3PDT stomps since they're so integral to a circuit and the cost of failure is high. So I use them for test builds and even personal stuff without any hesitation, but I wouldn't use them in a build for a touring musician.

I should mention, since I haven't heard this complaint from anyone else: I've had some issues with their 3362P trim pots. I ordered a large quantity of them and most of them had an open circuit if they were turned all the way down - the wiper totally lost contact with the resistive element. So instead of zero ohms it was infinite. It wasn't too much of an issue since you only had to barely turn it up for it to get back on track, but it took me a very long time to debug. (This was about a year ago and the value was 100k, in case it was just an isolated defect in that batch.)

I do love the 9mm pots. My only trouble is that I'm a freak about board-mounting all my pots and toggle switches, and you can't board-mount switches if you use 9mm pots because the pots are a lot shorter and there's not enough clearance for a switch. But if the circuit doesn't have switches, or your perfectly healthy brain will allow you to put them offboard, then the 9mms are great.

The knurled-plastic-shaft ones are a lot of fun. As long as your PCB is mounted securely and your drill-holes are accurate, it's a nice way to fit extra controls onto a 1590B build without adding knobs, especially for "fine tuning" sort of controls that aren't used as often.

[RobA]

I do love the 9mm pots. My only trouble is that I'm a freak about board-mounting all my pots and toggle switches, and you can't board-mount switches if you use 9mm pots because the pots are a lot shorter and there's not enough clearance for a switch. But if the circuit doesn't have switches, or your perfectly healthy brain will allow you to put them offboard, then the 9mms are great.

Really? I was just about to send off a pretty big (= expensive) board to OSHPark where I have  toggles and 9mm pots mixed. When I put them side-by-side, they look like they'll line up pretty much exactly (from aligning the deepest plastic ridge on the toggle with the metal tabs on the pot).