Hi all,

I have an old Behringer MDX2000; I know: not top-shelf equipment, but it was free! One minor problem -- one of the front panel potentiometers is broken. Not slightly broken... the pot's PCB is snapped off where it enters the metal can.

Here's my problem: I've tried all of the usual electronics component suppliers (Digi-Key, Mouser, Allied, etc.) and I cannot find a similar part. The pot in question is a 500k, audio-taper part with a 25mm-long shaft (measured from where it exits the metal bushing). Pot is a PCB-mount type. It has a "D" flat on the end of the shaft for a push-on knob. And, it has 40 or 41 detents. Sure, 500k, audio-taper parts are commonplace -- but not with a long shaft with a flat (most are splined) and not with detents. The pot has the usual three terminals (no fixed center-tap). Although there is one pot in the unit stamped "ALPS," this part is not and I don't know who then OEM would have been.

I have attempted to contact MUSIC Group (Behringer's parent company) and I've received no reply via email, nor have I been able to get anyone on the phone (spent several hours on hold last week while I did other work).

Does anyone have either:
a.) A valid Behringer part number for the pot?
b.) An "aftermarket" source for it?
c.) A spare part you'd sell me (a pull from a parts unit is fine)?

I'm an electronics engineer by training, so I'm no stranger to tracking down parts -- but this one has me stuck!

I appreciate any help anybody has to offer.

Ben

Might be you'll have to go with the closest replacement you can find that physically fits. The detent thing may be a tough one to get a direct replacement. Is the pot removed yet so you can get a picture of it posted?

The broken pot is removed, but is in several pieces. I'll take a photo of it (if I can recall where I put it!) as well as a photo of an intact pot on the board and post those.

Full Compass carries some replacement parts for gear ..... behringer Y03 | Search Results | Full Compass

If you don't find what you need, perhaps give them a call and see if they can get it.

Can you find the same value in a small package that you could mount sideways or upside down and wire to original solder pads?

Dear Ben,
I want to come back to you personally as I am disappointed you have had issues contacting us.
This is not our normal approach and I will be investigating to see where the system has gone wrong so we can learn and address for the future. Thank you for your feedback.
As a rule, contact through this email address will get a response within 24 hours at the latest:

In the meantime I have sent you a personal message to get some more details so I can try and help with your parts query. This is one of our older products and I would like to assist to get you up and running again and enjoying the product.

Kind regards,

- Carlos

I bought a damaged Behringer acoustic amp from Musicians Friend. It had a bad reverb control pot. It was a OEM special pot and Behringer (USA) wouldn't sell me one (I'm an amp tech). I was able to wire in a "stock" pot and use a different knob on it. Best I could do.

Thank you all for your replies. Carlos, I did receive your PM and I've now replied -- thank you.

I have been looking into replacing the pot with a more commonly-available one by either panel-mounting it (the original is mounted only to the PCB) and wiring it back to the main board, or by cobbling together an adapter on perfboard to convert the footprint of a smaller, plastic-body pot to match the original.

It's difficult to find pots with the detents, unless you want to order OEM quantities (i.e., the parts are made, but not stocked anywhere to be sold individually).

I've attached a photo of the part, for reference.


Thanks again. I appreciate the suggestions.

I just wanted to follow up on my post and give credit where it is due -- Carlos and Music Group USA managed to track down the part I need and I must say that I could not be more pleased with how this has worked out. My sincere thanks to Carlos and a couple of individuals at MUSIC Group USA (I'll leave their names out of this online discussion, since they haven't been a part of it).

Thanks!

Hello World Power Labs, Bumping this thread 3 yrs later....

I have the exact same need for a pot and could have written your posts above on finding one for my MDX2000 Composer. I need the 20K pot for the Gate/Expander on the left end which is broken. Did you get a part # or source for these pots? Mine has Alps 34Z 20KB marked on it. Any help from your experience is greatly appreciated. How can I get one?

Hello Brucemid,

Sorry about the delayed reply -- I haven't been spending as much time here lately as usual and for some reason, I didn't get an email alert (I'll have to check my email preferences).

I was never able to track down a distributor of that exact pot (I could find similar ones in terms of resistance and taper specs, but they lacked the detents and had different shafts). It's an Alps part, but as far as I could determine, it's a "semi-custom" component.

I ended up getting a replacement pot from Behringer, but it was not something that could be ordered through their parts division in Las Vegas. I eventually got in contact with one of their UK customer service folks, and he went way beyond the call of duty as it were, and located what I needed in their R&D lab in Germany. I don't know if they have any more of them there or not -- and I don't have their internal part no. for it unfortunately.

Where are you located? I have a parts-donor MDX2000 (came to me missing so many parts that it's not good for anything else) and I can check to see if it uses the same Alps 34Z 20KB for the Gate/Expander circuit. If it does, and you don't mind waiting until I have a chance to remove it, I'd be happy to send it along provided the shipping cost isn't prohibitive.





One note about these units: I've worked on a couple Behringer pieces from this era, and all of them have needed new filter capacitors in their power supply section, and all have had one or more bad solder joints on the voltage regulator ICs, presumably from thermal cycling. I recall the main board being a bit of a pain to get out of the '2000, but if you have experience working on anything electronic, it's not too bad.

Hi guys, just wanted to chime in that I also have a MDX2000 parts-donor lying around. I´m located in Germany, so if it makes sense, and you want to cover the shipping costs, let me know (PM). I´ll be happy to donate some parts.