Hey Guys,
Kind of a newb and I have a few questions for you regarding parts sourcing. I've been using Tayda and Pedal Parts Plus for most stuff but I wanted to get some of your perspectives. I've noticed some of the parts I got form Tayda were junk and of lesser quality. I want to try and get away from using them but don't have a ton of money to throw around. Pedal Parts Plus I had no problems with they were just a bit expensive. So, here are some questions...
1. Who do you use for 3PDT and other switches?
2. Who do you use for passives, ICs,and transistors?
3. Who is the best quality with the lowest price?
4. Who gives the best hugs around here? (LOLZ just kidding)
Thanks for the feedback guys! Always helpful!
-Mike-
3PDT, DPDT, jacks and unfinished enclosures: Bitches Love My Switches; good price and the switches take solder well; good service to boot.
Passives: Not had problems with Tayda for Rs and Cs so far.
ICs, Diodes and trannies: Small Bear or Mouser; been disappointed with Tayda for these I'm afraid. Neither is the cheapest, but the quality is top notch.
Finished enclosures: PPP
Hugs? Rumor has it the Bear gives the best hugs. :D
Welcome to the forum!
You ask a loaded question, and if you ask 10 people you probably will get differing 10 answers. With that preface, I will give you my opinion on Tayda and try your questions:
1. Who do you use for 3PDT and other switches?
I personally use Tayda for 3PDT and have had great luck with them. Others report problems. The tayda toggle lever switches are kind of cheap but they work - not the best. Better options are Smallbear, bitcheslovemyswitches.com (BLMS), mammoth and others. BLMS and others have the short bat handles which are nice as they don't stick up too far.
2. Who do you use for passives, ICs,and transistors?
Tayda ICs are pretty hard to beat for the most part. 4558, TC1044SCPA, TL071, TL072, TL074 etc are all legit and good prices. Passives like resistors from Tayda work just fine but they have small thin leads which bother some. If that is bothersome you can get packs of resistors from the "big guys" like Digikey, Mouser, Newark etc. Transistors are typically pretty legit from Tayda with the exception of J201 (which are fakes and not the same). For strange value transistors, you will have a better time ordering from Mouser/Newark/Digikey. The Tayda box caps are a pretty good value and work well. Although, if you are placing an order with Mouser/Newark/Digikey...check out the pricing if you intend to order qtys of 100+ as sometimes they beat Tayda. Tayda's elecro caps "work" but are pretty cheap no-name stuff. I like to pony up the extra coin and get some legit name brand (Kemet/Panasonic/Nichicon/Lelon) caps from one of the big houses. The advantage is that you can get them in shorter heights (like 5mm or 7mm) instead of 11mm and they are name brand. I have assembled a good selection of electros in various voltages (16v and 25v) in differing heights for 1uf, 4u7, 15uF, 22uF, 47uF, 100uF. It's nice if you can get the shorter ones (5mm or 7mm) so they fit in your enclosure nicely.
3. Who is the best quality with the lowest price?
A loaded question for sure. It's a matter of pick and choose for the application at hand. Building for yourself? For sale to others? Just to see if the circuit works? Tayda's stuff "works" but is not all the best quality. However I do enjoy their film caps, 3PDT, resistors, diodes, enclosures, ICs and other random stuff. I would stay away from the J201s, 1/4" jacks (garbage).
4. Who gives the best hugs around here? (LOLZ just kidding)
That would be "haveyouseenhim" especially when he is unloading a rifle into a block of explosive on his private range. 8)
Nice good info. I came across a site 3pdt.com. Had any transactions with them?
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I haven't, but they are a supplier that people use for DIY stuff.
Jacob
I think we should have a poll for the answer to nr. 4, so here is my top 3:
-The Bean himself
-juansolo
-Rej (GrindCustoms)
Any other suggestions? ;)
Paul
1. Who do you use for 3PDT and other switches?
Bitches love my switches
2. Who do you use for passives, ICs,and transistors?
Mouser, Tayda & Small Bear for a few items like Belton bricks etc..
3. Who is the best quality with the lowest price?
Thats a hard one.. I just source all my stuff from Mouser and Tayda. If I get something that is cheap quality from Tayda then I simply avoid it next time.
Customer Service:
I have had some many issues with Mammoth Electronics that I no longer use them at all.
I have only had 2 issues with Tayda and they fixed it next day and had the items shipped out.
Mouser, I have never had one issue with. Always fast processing and shipping and never missing parts.
I absolutely hate navigating Small Bear's website and wish they would get a better search script.
Thanks selfdestroyer. Good info here. I also 100% agree with you on small bears website. I'll have to check out BLMS. They sound pretty reputable.
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I was planning on buying the vast majority of my components for an upcoming build at mammoth electronics. Do they really need to be avoided?
Depends on your acceptable level of risk.
Jacob
Quote from: jkokura on January 15, 2014, 11:27:36 PM
Depends on your acceptable level of risk.
Jacob
well that doesn't instill a lot of confidence! care to elaborate?
Quote from: blackedition on January 15, 2014, 11:34:57 PM
Quote from: jkokura on January 15, 2014, 11:27:36 PM
Depends on your acceptable level of risk.
Jacob
well that doesn't instill a lot of confidence! care to elaborate?
Quality is good, shipping is a gamble. Not always the most timely, and the replies of we will get it shipped to you answers are sometimes cookie cutter. I do order from them and will continue to. Just don't be in a hurry.
ah i see... waiting for shipments can be really frustrating... i've ordered stuff from small bear before, and was happy with the product i received (ordered a bunch of solder lug pots for circuit bending)... mammoth's site is just so much cleaner and easier to navigate... now i'm in a pickle as well as the OP!
small bear, pedal parts plus, and mammoth seem to be the leading contenders (though i must admit, i'm now very leery of ordering from mammoth...)... i've ordered stuff many times from mouser for various electronics projects, but, unless you know exactly what you want, navigating their site can be frustrating as well... also, i find that it is often expensive to order from them unless you're ordering in huge quantities...
heavy sigh... i'll be glued to this thread! i'm prepping for sending off the orders this weekend... hopefully i come to a confident conclusion about from where to order...
apologies to the OP... i don't mean to hi jack the thread...
I buy stomp switches, jacks and enclosures from BLMS. Good Prices, good quality and so far good service.
Other than that stuff, I get pretty much everything I can from tayda. They're easily the cheapest, my last shipment (to Wisconsin) took less than a week to arrive and with the thousands of parts I've ordered from them, every order was exactly correct. I've built about a dozen pedals now and have not had a single bad part from tayda (knock on wood).
Stuff I can't get from tayda I usually get from Smallbear.
I got some ca3080e's from ebay once and they seemed to be fine.
Quote from: blackedition on January 15, 2014, 11:34:57 PM
Quote from: jkokura on January 15, 2014, 11:27:36 PM
Depends on your acceptable level of risk.
Jacob
well that doesn't instill a lot of confidence! care to elaborate?
They send out a percentage of their orders incorrect or with parts missing as well as having issues with quality control and customer experience.
One positive I can say is that they work hard at trying to make up for the issues. Mammoth often has great prices, so if you want to try them, you can often find really good deals on mostly good products. If you don't need to order from them, Smallbear rarely get's anything wrong and they often ship quickly.
Jacob
i see... thanks very much for the reply... it will certainly be something to think about... maybe i won't order any super important parts from them and just cherry pick deals when i see them...
small bear looks like it is going to be the way to go... just hope they have everything i need in stock when i compile the order...
Just on the topic of retailer delivery times.
Even though my little webstore is no where near the scale of these other retailers, I can see similar issues they must struggle with, particularly with international post. Its nice to receive positive feedback from people regarding fast shipping of the packages I send out, keeps me in the know. But the honest truth is, I'm utterly at the mercy of the international postal service and <your countries> postal system. Its for this reason that I do everything I can to get the order out as quickly as possible and I usually do this within 24 hours of receiving the order. waiting for stuff to show up is annoying. :) I think if your an international retailer and your NOT posting your stuff out as fast as possible, your asking for trouble. Your just adding extra time onto what could be a long delivery time.
I've found it to be an interesting experience to be the sender instead of the receiver and the challenges faced.
Once a package is in the mail, I %100 agree with you. However, the shipping issues with Mammoth have not been about the postal services, and have only something to do about the international issues. To be honest, I like what Mammoth has been trying to do, in particular that they offer USPS first class service to Canada. Most other places don't including Smallbear, which means that any order of anything of substance from Smallbear my shipping is $28+.
Anyway, my point being, ordering from everywhere has certain expenses, and includes an amount of risk and patience built right in. I feel it's riskiest to order from Mammoth, and requires the most patience, but it's certainly less expensive than some other options.
Jacob
Ship time is usually what makes me (personally) stay with or bail on an online retailer. If there is no tracking...goodbye. If it takes 3 weeks to go from NY to MA (where I am), see ya later. I understand that we are a all at the mercy of the postman but there is a line for most of us.
On another note, I just checked out www.3pdt.com and there are another Tayda. Located in China, sells knock off boards, fairly inexpensive. They do sell capacitor and resistor kits though. I think I saw a transistor and ic assortment too. Cheap enclosures and switches. Have no idea about the quality tho.
I have tried Mammoth, wasn't blown away by them but also wasn't let down. Tayda has, of lately, been adrift in the ocean that is my patience. They have messed up my last 2 or 3 orders and the 3pdt switches fell apart when I needed to desolder. Plus half of the j201s didn't work. That is why I started this thread. Wanted some reputable sources. You guy rule and are always full of great info!
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Oh, one other thing. When you order from tayda, everything comes individually packaged and labeled, which is nice if you are getting hundreds or thousands of parts at a time. Smallbear, on the other hand, does not label things very well. It hasn't been a big issue for me because I've only made small orders from them but if you were ordering a bunch of stuff it might be a pain to sort it out.
Well wait til you order from mouser then! Mind=blown
Mouser loves labels like Brian loves lead and rosin fumes :)
Smallbear will label, if you ask nicely -- one time I ordered two different types of LDR, and they labelled the two otherwise identical bags on my request.
I recently ordered a large number of components (for an unrelated) project from Newark. Very impressed with their "cheap" resistors as they have thick leads. Even more impressed about the detail of their labels. Even let's you know the diameter of electro caps right on the label.
Hmm, also good to know I was looking at mouser and digikey this morning. I'll give them a looksy too!
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Shipping speed? Ordered 6pm Monday night, 10:30 Tuesday morning unpacking the order, North Dakota to Canada, regular $8 shipping, their only option and price for orders under $200, free shipping above that threshold.
Cheap, Good, Fast.....
You can only pick 2 :-\
well, personally... i'd pick good... fast and cheap are much less important. if it is a ridiculous difference in shipping speeds, i would likely err on the side of quicker shipping... quality of the product is far and away the most important thing to me. i don't mind paying slightly more for something that i know is going to deliver (no pun intended ;) )
Hey. I'm even newer than you are here! I'm terrible at forums in general but Stomptown told me how great it is here, so here I am!
I love ordering from Smallbear. They might not be the cheapest but the quality and service has always been great and they are my favorite.
Pedal Parts Plus is my next pick.
For the most part, I use them both fairly equally. It usually comes down to who has something specific I'm looking for. Then I order everything else I can think of because now I'm paying shipping.
For example, I like to buy enclosures from PPP but I will buy mini toggles from SB. In my perfect world SB and PPP would join forces under one roof and offer free shipping!!
My favorite 3PDT's so far are from CE Distribution. They are cheap, look good, and I have zero failures so far.
Lee
Glad to see you joined up Lee! Definitely check out the buy and sell form. In that forum there is a sub forum with the occasional group buy for parts. Typically it will be for one type of part (e.g. 3PDT, pots, or caps) but you can save a lot of money by stocking up this way and 99% they are high quality parts.
Awesome. I will definitely be checking it out!