Stay away from Futurlec!

[m-Kresol]

Futurlec is also on my "never again" list.  They seem to list everything, but have nothing in stock.  They get your money and then go shopping, which takes forever.  If you pay by credit card, like I did, they will try to string you along long enough (more than 1 billing cycle) so that it is difficult to get your credit card company to help you, particularly if you already paid the bill and the credit card company has already paid them.  The charges hit my card the day the order was placed, not when it was shipped (like a reputable dealer would do).  Of course, I guess they have to charge immediately because they never ship the stuff...  Big hassle to get my money back, even after they agreed that they couldn't find any of the parts I ordered - took a couple of months of "no worries, we'll refund you tomorrow". 

I noticed the OP was buying slide pots.  Those seem unreasonably difficult to find.  You can find some singles for way too much on ebay, or you have to buy a couple hundred (probably a case) to get the ones you want from a distributor.  Even Mouser doesn't stock very many.  Does anyone have a good source that stocks a variety of them at reasonable cost?  And don't even get me started on trying to find knobs for them!  Luckily, there are now the cool ones with LEDs that don't need knobs.

I actually didn't know that the are only a middle-man kind of company. I thought they actually have in stock what they advertise as 'in stock'.
For your slider pot question: I agree, they are hard to find, which is one of the reasons I went with futurlec. Banzaimusic.com has quite a few, but they are 2.5€ per piece (there you have the other reason ). RS electronics only has a very limited and sometimes very expensive selection. Mouser has a lot of different ones. I actually designed the pcb around the LED ones you mentioned only to find that mouser has them in their catalogue, but does not carry all of them in stock. I can see why, as there are various travel length and LED colours combined with resistance and taper. Of course the ones I wanted were not available unless I order 350 pieces.

[PhiloB]

This reminds me, I placed an order with them several months back, I need to follow up;)


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[BillyBoy]

I bet most of the "bad vendor" stories start with someone thinking they have found a source of hard-to-find parts.  And most of the rest is simply "found it cheaper".  Those have certainly been the causes of some of mine (shared in another thread).  I'm pretty careful with online purchases, but still get sucked in sometimes when I want to believe I've found something a little too good to be true. 

I guess with everything being controlled by touchscreens, there's not much demand for slide pots these days.  And the guys that need lots of them (to make eqs or whatever), can afford to buy a few 1000 at a time and even get custom manufacturing runs. 

I guess that's the nature of having a vintage analog addiction - just gotta live with it though, 'cause there's no treating it.  I tried a digital 12-step program and fell off the wagon the next time I heard an analog delay.  Now I'm just an analog junkie, taking it day by day... :^)

[m-Kresol]

I guess that's the nature of having a vintage analog addiction - just gotta live with it though, 'cause there's no treating it.  I tried a digital 12-step program and fell off the wagon the next time I heard an analog delay.  Now I'm just an analog junkie, taking it day by day... :^)

Ha, that made me laugh.
I actually tried programming for the first time on Monday. Took me 1.5 hours to get from nothing to flashing LEDs with my raspberry. Small steps...

[pogart]

Similar experience when I ordered LDR's for the doppleganger. 2 months and nothing. CC company refunded the charge to me and then an email arrives from Futurlec asking for my mailing address. They showed up 3 weeks later with no stamp, no customs stamp. Just a plain brown envelope with no return address and double what I ordered. An oddball experience for sure.

[BillyBoy]

Spent pretty much my whole life doing software, nearly 40 years' worth of it anyway.  Blinking lights on Day One is a pretty good accomplishment!  It's a lot like building circuitry though - some days everything works right the first try and some days the lights just won't blink no matter what you try :^)

[CodeMonk]

Mouser
Smallbear
PPP

My "Holy Trinity" 

I have tried a couple other places and got burned one way or the other so I exclusively use the above for all things pedals. I guess I understand ordering from these overseas discount places if mass-quantity is needed and a penny on the dollar matters but (fortunately) I am not there in my "pedal career".

I'll add Digikey in there only because they have the lowest price on the 1590X.
I've ordered a few other things from Digikey and have not had any problems with them.

I've ordered once from Futurelec.
It took something like 6 weeks for delivery.
While I got all the parts I ordered, I was not pleased.
I'm never ordering from them again.

[pickdropper]

Allied and Newark are also useful in a pinch.


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[alanp]

The only time I've worked with Futurlec parts is for a set of Doppelganger LDRs, and I got those from Lace (who, in turn, was the one who actually dealt with FL.)

I really can't see any reason for any business dealings with them, based on this thread. I'd rather give my money for the rare stuff like this to Steve from Smallbear, who is a genuine good... uh, chap.

[chromesphere]

They may have SOME stock of what they advertise but they DEFINITELY work as a part sourcing agent for the majority. They lure you in with the In

I agree.  They are hit and miss all of the time with their stock.

Back before the time of Tayda, futurlec was one of the only 'cheap' suppliers.  Man those days were a nightmare.  I remember one particular order, my last order with them actually.  I had been waiting 2 months.  I emailed them "wheres my parts".  "oh...the transistor is on backorder, will send out soon".   So they held up a $100 worth of parts for a 10c transistor, I thought from the email they were saying they had posted it...But...Another 2 months past still no order.  I emailed them again "we are waiting on the transistor, should be in stock in a couple of months...".  Seriously...I responded: "Just cancel the freaking transistor and send the rest..."  Total time from placing the order was 5-6 months.  That's a pretty crappy way of running a business...I received no emails, no updates the entire time until I asked them for information.

[haveyouseenhim]

"Don't order from futurlec, because your parts arrive way in the future. " -peteytwofinger