Does anyone know a source for replacement faders? Or a fix for broken tabs?

[markmalin]

I called Mesa regarding the Mark II Coliseum I'm working on to see if I can buy a replacement fader. All are there, but one tab is broken off. Mesa said they no longer cary these older ones. Wondering if someone knows a source for the individual sliders, or if there may be some sort of fix for a broken tab?

TIA
Mark

 

[Jay Omega]

I called Mesa regarding the Mark II Coliseum I'm working on to see if I can buy a replacement fader. All are there, but one tab is broken off. Mesa said they no longer cary these older ones. Wondering if someone knows a source for the individual sliders, or if there may be some sort of fix for a broken tab?

TIA
Mark

CTS stopping making them, I was never able to find a source other than boogie and they wouldn’t sell me any last time I tried. The pots are 50k with a special linear taper

You could weld the tab back on I suppose. I’m not sure you need to do anything if we’re talking one tab on one fader, it’s soldered to the PCB and benefits from the tabs on the other sliders.

 

[woodbutcher65]

Someone's going to figure out a way to make some money 3D printing a fix for them.

 

[electric mayhem]

CTS stopping making them, I was never able to find a source other than boogie and they wouldn’t sell me any last time I tried. The pots are 50k with a special linear taper

Thanks for this info. I was going to see if I could find the faders for my IIB coli. I recognized the CTS manufacture code and that is as far as I got. All five are broke off and it doesn't bother me as there is just enough left to get a finger on.

With all 5 of mine broke it might be possible to make custom knobs tight enough to slip in the chassis slots.

 

[woodbutcher65]

If you are feeling brave enough to disassemble one of the faders, the slider could be reverse engineered and a new one 3D printed. Or have a part 3D printed that would restore the broken shaft.

Another alternative would be to try to find some other faders of the same series on the surplus parts market, even if their values aren't correct. Carefully disassemble them and extract the shaft assembly to transfer to your originals. The resistive element is not part of the shaft assembly.

 

[electric mayhem]

Mesa sells the 588536 and it is 50K. Does anyone know the difference between that and xx8535?

The original IIB fader is DW 8535 and Mesa used to sell 588535 which I'm sure is the same as DW 8535 resistively but I picked up a DC3 EQ board and popped one of the faders off (6.6kHz). I'm not sure but the DW 8535 might have mounting tabs to the chassis from eyeing it up.

The 588535 measured 37.7K ohm and the center detent measures 18K/19.7K, so close to linear. I've just learned pots + and mostly - are not close tolerances. Still this is more than 20% off if it is supposed to be 50K (which seems likely) and I'd imagine all the 4 decade DW's are no better.

Has anyone removed a GEQ board? It looks like taking the face plate off and possibly there are bend tabs on the fader that go into the holes above/below the slider slots. If so these donor 588531's may not be of use as whole units. That's a shame given how much newer they feel but the slider tab could very well be swap-able. The up side would be cleaning/lubing the old ones back to excellent. The downside is what a PIA removing the EQ board would be. I did hold off the upper 4 220uF filters until I decide.

I really prefer any EQ to be outboard but love the IIB coli that has it. My bias may be the 415's in it and it being my first coli.