How to read a 5-band resistor that has its bands spread evenly?

Not all possible values exist, so with many of them, if you read the bands in the wrong direction, you'll get an impossible resistance, i.e. one that doesn't fall into the E24, E48, E96 or E192 series (whichever is appropriate according to the tolerance band).

For the example you gave, reading the bands backwards gives a resistance of 12 megohms, which is outside the range of standard resistors, so it's unlikely to be right. Especially at 0.1% tolerance! (Very high value resistors are difficult to make accurately.)

But to answer your question, start by using a multimeter to measure a few of them. If you think about the patterns that emerge while you're measuring them, you may figure out a trick you can use to work out which end is which without measuring any more of them (or maybe measure a few at random to check your trick is working reliably).

Check out a few web references on the resistor colour code. Some resistors have a band that indicates the temperature coefficient. But if all your resistors have five bands, and they're all modern components from standard resistor series, AFAIK you can assume that the bands will be digit, digit, digit, multiplier, tolerance. In one direction or the other.

If you have 165 resistors, all with different values, and several different tolerances, then I would say you have your work cut out for you

 

If one of the end colours is anything other that Brown, Red, Gold or Silver. Then this is the start end. If both ends are Brown or Red then as Kris said work it out both ways, failing that measure them.
Thanks
Adam

 

You can Google the resistor color code system, and find what you need. Different sites show a variety of charts.
I agree, some of the resistors I've seen with the five bands, are difficult to decipher sometimes.

 

I see a lot of them, *steve*. They're coming from no-name (alright, fly-by-night) Chinese manufacturers who I can't find information from (in English anyway).
Some of them actually omit the tolerance band. Others use two bands for the multiplier (adding a black band to substitute for one of the mulitplier digits.

 

I think the guy whose making the ones I see, is doing it inside a tin shack in Shanghai.
Maybe nobody told him about industry standard rules.
To him, 'temperature coefficient' means summer or winter-time.
(whether or not the lead in the paint he's painting the digit bands with needs to be defrosted for use, or not)
(or how about: at what temperature the paint efficiently flows onto the resistor)