Gold-plated C&K pushbutton switches

Otari Retrofit Project: Replace standard pushbutton switches with gold plated ones currently available ones

Not sure for how long (2026-10) as they are getting hard to find in-stock at major distributors.

OEM switches are TMS Japan and no longer available. They may be silver-plated. Why would Otari use gold-plated card-edge connectors that just sit there, but not use gold contacts on switches that are always moving in and out? Hmmm.

Search for alternatives (gang-able gold-plated contact push button selector switches) bring up Knitter-Switch and of course C&K F Series.

The 2-station chassis require 20mm spacing to allow the reuse of the pushbutton caps. The caps fit the C&K switch shafts perfectly. C&K caps are 19.56mm wide - close to the Otari sized 20mm caps.

An interesting thing to note is that the TMS Japan switches aggressively punched the switch chassis and then tapped those holes with a 3mm x 0.05 thread pitch. This method allowed a goodly amount of metal to remain to form the threads. C&K went cheap. They just punched a hole in this thin metal. It does tap kinda' OK to 3mm. But don't over-tighten!

Submitted to Littelfuse 2026-10-04 UPDATE: they auto-replied we will contact you shortly but, of course, blew me off.

Good day;

Reworking a professional reel-to-reel tape deck. Removing the standard vintage "TMS Japan" pushbutton selector switches and replacing with your product Series F2UEETBAU. I am in need of six (6) 20mm spacing 2 Station Chassis' which DigiKey specs as your Mfr.: # C0220 but your website lookup fails to find.

Two questions: 1) Still available in this small quantity? 2) Any chance of supplying these to a retired guy as a sample? This project will eventually end up on a forum and could lead to future sales.

Thanks for time and consideration.

Went ahead and ordered from Newark:

The part number for the Switch Chassis is: C0220

The switch slot needs to be 20mm wide. So the

• C stands for "Chassis"
• "02" stands for a two switch-slot bracket
• "20" stands for the switch width

BTW; 10 were $9.45 at Mouser. $3-1/2 bucks cheaper than pricey Newark.

From his notes

I had bought ten of the C&K switches for another project that I gave up on. As these switches will drop right in to the Otari electronics I went ahead and swapped them out. Old switches were OK; just a bit scratchy. I hope this is an improvement. Nevertheless; something to do in retirement. Sad thing is I only had ten and I needed twelve to complete both sections. I guess I'll skip swapping the least used function. Between the minimum purchase requirement (5) and the cost-per ($13) it's just too much dough.

Pushbutton switch chassis compare

OEM pulls: why the green shaft (1)

OEM pulls: why the green shaft (2)

Pushbutton switch chassis, 3mm tap

Change out to AU (1)

AU switches installed (1)

AU switches installed (2)

AU switches installed, test osc still OEM (3)