# Scratchy Volume Controls - How to fix/clean?



## ewjsmith (Jan 4, 2008)

Hey everyone.

I just hooked up my guitar to my amp for the first time in probably a year and the volume/tone on the guitar is scratchy and cuts in/out. I suspect corrosion/dirt on the volume/tone controls. What's the best way to clean/fix this?

Thanks for looking.


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## GuitaristZ (Jan 26, 2007)

You can pick up a can of contact cleaner and then spray that inside the pots. Works wonders.

However, if the guitar is fairly old, you might want to consider replacing them sometime.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

like guitaristz said- and theres really no better option than replacing them, pots are pretty cheap.
i have had success with wd40, lighter fluid and isopropyl alcohol as well- 
if you cant open the pot up yu can try to get it in at the base of the shaft, and through any other openings, keep spinning the shaft- you want to break up any crap thats built up on the contact points, and wash it away-
but replacement is best, anything else is temporary.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

hehe paul- for the price of the contact cleaner he could replace the pots- 
wd40 is only wrong in that it may degrade plastic components(a non issue in an already funky pot)- its also something many folks already have around. i use it to clean contact points in industrial wiring, and automotive wiring, so why not a guitar pot?


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## Geek (Jun 5, 2007)

Hi,

Try an eye dropper and rubbing alcohol.

WD40 is a last ditch for controls you're going to replace soon anyway (it eats the carbon in pots). It's a "Get me through this gig" type thing.

Cheers!


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## radapaw (Jan 10, 2007)

It's amazing how many times I've managed descratched pots by just turning the knob a whole bunch in really short quick strokes, moving from 'all the way up' to down (volume wise). I'm not sure why it works, but I think slowy but surly the gunk n'chunks of dust are getting pushed to the off position area.


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## Roidster (Aug 5, 2007)

get contact cleaner or replace the pot,which i would do

stay away from WD 40,unless you have water in your pot
WD 40 was invented by the US navy
WD stand for Water Displacer 40


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

Roidster said:


> get contact cleaner or replace the pot,which i would do
> 
> stay away from WD 40,unless you have water in your pot
> WD 40 was invented by the US navy
> WD stand for Water Displacer 40



ahh well- then i guess its best to avoid wd 40 thenlargetongue


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2008)

Roidster said:


> WD 40 was invented by the US navy
> WD stand for Water Displacer 40


And they perfected it on the 40th try.
Just to add another bit of useless trivia.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I use residue free contact cleaner. A can will last years.

It's important to use stuff that doesn't leave residue.

I do replace my volume pots fairly often as I tend to use them a lot.

Tone pots last forever for me.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

*What techs actually use...*

In the electronic repair industry techs have always used cleaners specifically made for volume/tone controls and switch contacts. These contain inert lubricants like silicon. Residue-free cleaners are from the industrial electrician world, who works with motor brushes, big relay/contactor contacts and the like. They too clean contacts but with no lubricants they can leave a volume control or a rotary switch a bit less mechanically smooth as you rotate them.

My most vivid memory of a WD40 disaster was from about 20 years ago. A young fellow was teaching a studio recording course from his home here in Stoney Creek. He soon realized I was a tech and asked me to look at his studio board, which had a dead channel.

To make a long story short, he had been using WD40 on that channel's slider. The oil had dissolved the carbon of the resistance element. The slider control no longer HAD a resistance element!

To make matters worse, slide pots in mixing boards are rarely a catalogue item you can buy from an electronics store. They usually are a custom fit shape to the printed circuit board. You have to buy replacements from the board manufacturer.

In this case, the board manufacturer had gone out of business. That's why this guy had bought the board second hand real cheap!

A $30,000 studio board with a dead channel that could not be fixed. What a pity. 

If he had just asked a tech before he sprayed the damn stuff in there...

:food-smiley-004:


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A buddy in Ottawa here has a nice and quite active studio that is about 50% digital, 50% analog. He masters to tape so all those slider pots have to be immaculate and noise free. He directed me to a substance he swears by called Stabilant (www.stabilant.com), made in Richmond Hill, of all places. This is NOT a contact *cleaner* but rather a contact *enhancer*. You can read more about it at the website. At the risk of oversimplification, let's just say that it behaves like a liquid solder joint that fills in the couple of microns between contacts that can often make the difference between quiet and crackly performance.

On a volume basis, this stuff is expensive, maybe $40 for a little bottle. I have been able to buy 0.5ml "testers" of the stuff for 50 cents a pop at a local electronics place, and baby I am SOLD. Just amazing stuff. I have brough a number of pedals back to life by dabbing a little bit in the right places, and these days when I bring new pots home, I pop the backs off and immediately treat them with the stuff. It is called Stabilant because it is chemically stable. That is, it won't dry out or break down over the life of the pot. Essentially you apply once and that's it. The little vials come with a plastic applicator that lets you apply little sesame-seed-sized droplets in the right place. I can usually treat about 30 pots with a half ml. A couple of ounces would last you a lifetime.

For best outcome, it is probably wise to clean the pot first, in the manner recommended here by others. Personally, I find it sufficient to apply a bit of isopropyl alchohol with a Q-tip and clean up any gunk that may have accumulated. Once the surface is clean and dry, I then apply the Stabilant.

One of the neat things about this stuff is that is can also be applied to the contacts inside stompswitches, slideswitches, toggles, on the spring contacts of IC sockets, and even on tube pins. In all instances it can improve contact quality. The website lists hundreds of other applications. There is no end to the number of situations where, as I say, a gap of a couple of microns can make or break sound quality.

Give it a try. I think you'll be as impressed as I am.


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## Jim Krueger (Jan 6, 2008)

*Wd 40*

Actually WD40 was invented (water displacement formula # 40....really!) by an independant comapny for NASA back in the Gemini days I believe. It was used to repell morning moisture (dew) from the external body and components of the Gemini space vehicles. The US Military never developed anything on their own, which is why the US economy is so dependant on military products.

At the risk of sounding unpleasant, to end the debate on using or not using WD40 on pots....faders on any mixing consul can be easily compared to pots, so go ahead and spray the faders on your board with WD40 and see what happens. I recall a guy a few years back, sonsidered himself a tech, did just this and ended up paying for the replacement of all 16 faders on the customers 1604 Macki.

I suggest using the proper tool, substance for the job.....(after what one astute individual wrote above) try turning the pot from full-nill numerous times....scratchiness is sometimes just dust build-up on the carbon trace.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Jim Krueger said:


> I suggest using the proper tool, substance for the job.....(after what one astute individual wrote above) try turning the pot from full-nill numerous times....scratchiness is sometimes just dust build-up on the carbon trace.


Essentially correct, but do consider that a pot works by having a moving contact under pressure rub against a resistive strip that is made of compressed particles. Some (though certainly not all of it) of the gunk in the pot is the rubbed off resistive material. Over time, that "micro-erosion" not only creates gunk on the resistive strip, but also create small gaps and discontinuities in contact that contribute to produce scratchiness. The textbook case of this is a wah pedal, but there are other examples too, such as table radios in the kitchen whose volume control never goes above 11:00. Eventually both pots (wah and radio volume) will become scratchy from regular rubbing in the same places. Without wishing to sound like a shill for that Stabilant stuff, this is the very reason why I like it so much; it provides a thin layer that can often (though not always) make up for what has been worn away over time. Contact cleaner can not do that. It can only remove the buildup. If you can find a place that sells it in the small vials, you really owe it to yourself to spring the 50 cents and try it out.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

lots more replies here than is normal for this section of the forum-



> Hey everyone.
> 
> I just hooked up my guitar to my amp for the first time in probably a year and the volume/tone on the guitar is scratchy and cuts in/out. I suspect corrosion/dirt on the volume/tone controls. What's the best way to clean/fix this?
> 
> Thanks for looking.


its a good thing you all showed up, otherwise the op might have used wd40 on his guitar that he never plays, destroying his $30,000 console in the process. funny how a $4 pot creates this kinda interest-
i mentioned it because, in a pinch, it works, and the op was asking about a guitar pot- nothing more. nor did i tell him wd40 is the answer, only one of several possible solutions.
now this is the wd40 thread.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

fraser said:


> lots more replies here than is normal for this section of the forum-
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah, but Fraser you have to remember that WD40 is about as much of a "guy thing" as duct tape! Of course we all want to talk about it!:smile:

:food-smiley-004:


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

> Yeah, but Fraser you have to remember that WD40 is about as much of a "guy thing" as duct tape! Of course we all want to talk about it!


yes that makes sense. didnt see that angle- you are correct as always bill, correct as always.
:food-smiley-004:


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Some 8 years ago, I had a couple of angioplasties. For the uninitiated, an angioplasty involves the insertion of a very long thin tube into an artery in your groin, and working it up through your arterial system to the location of the blockage. An even thinner tube is inserted into the first one and a teeny tiny balloon at the end of it is briefly inflated so as to pack the crap lining the wall of the artery a little tighter and free up some space for the blood to pass through more effectively. For those of us who need it, it is a true breath of fresh air.

Misery aside, during the second one, as they wheeled me into the operating room, I couldn't help notice a can of WD40 sitting on the counter, and sticking out of the can was the characteristic long thin red tube. I thought, "Well, WD40 is for getting stuck things unstuck, and I'm in here because I've got blockage, and that tube is about the right size, so maybe.....". It was one of those fantasy sequences that runs through your mind when they stick a nozzle over your face and ask you to count backwards by 13. True story, though. It's useful stuff. Just not THAT useful.


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## SkunkWorks (Apr 12, 2007)

Agreed.... you should never put WD40 into a guitar or any pot unless you want to end up with even worse problems. If it doesn't eat away at ceratin materials inside it will certainly create sludge or goo with any dust and/or dirt that may be inside that you will now never get rid of and will just create more problems for you to the point where you probably WILL now have to replace the pot.


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