I have a problem with a 3-way lamp. The problem started with the
contact for the higher-wattage filament not making good contact with
the bulb base, causing the lamp to flicker and the bulb to burn out
prematurely. On inspection I found that the socket contacts were
pitted, almost certainly from arcing, so I replaced the socket with a
new one I bought at an antique lamp store. That fixed the problem for
a few weeks, but soon the problem recurred. Thinking that the lamp
store might carry subpar sockets, I bought another replacement at our
local Home Depot. I got the same result - problem solved for a few
weeks. It occurred to me that I may have single-sourced the sockets -
either the lamp shop buys them from Home Depot, or they both buy them
from the same manufacturer.

Does anyone know of a high-quality brand of light sockets? Is there
any difference between brands of 3-way light bulbs that could account
for the arcing?

Thanks,

Jim Williams
Norfolk, VA