Volume and Tone pots

[PBall1]

Has anyone ever determined why tone and volume pots get corrupted? I have sprayed out the volume pot on my Epiphone Coronet for the last ten years. I wondered if anyone knows of a sealed pot that this won't happen to. Thanks.

[Gabriel E.]

They get corrupted because they have moving parts and delicate conductive surfaces. Add humidity and dust and corruption is inevitable.

 

You can get sealed RV4 Military-Spec pots from a variety of online retailers. They cost $10-15 ea. and will probably last forever.

[Caevan O’Shite]

What did you use to spray out the volume pot, PBall1?

 

Tuner Cleaner, aka Control/Contact Cleaner & Lubricant, leaves a lube behind for the track and wiper; many other products (like WD-40) that many folks erroneously spray into control-pots don't, and strip away what lubricant was there to begin with. This often causes the original problem get worse and worse with time and each re-application.

 

Sometimes ya just get a bad pot, though, which wouldn't surprise me on many Epiphone guitars (nothing against 'em, but they do tend to use cheaper parts than some). And Gabriel's right, they're relatively delicate mechanical parts that will all eventually wear out with enough use.

 

The stock pots on my Gibson Les Paul aren't the most ideal pots, but they're of a good enough quality that a very few spritzes of Tuner Cleaner over the years has had 'em remain smooth and scratch-free.

[G. A. Donis]

The company I work for has a saying, "All mechanical equipment is on an ineitable march to the scrap heap. the quality with which it is manufactured and the care with which it is applied and maintaned will determine its longevity."

 

I don't know the exact construction of the pots used in guitars but the one in my Charvel has been scratchy and noisy from day one so I've sprayed a lot of cleaner into it over the last 20 years or so. I seem to remember that it appears it uses an o-ring as a seal on the shaft. Seals and shafts wear which allow contaminants in.

 

I would expect anything that actually complies with a MIL spec to be of high quality and to hae a longer life than a basic off the shelf item. One of these days I'm going to replace that volume pot in my Charvel, one of these days.

[desertbluesman]

I just wire in new pots when this happens, I have to do so on my Ibanez RG one of these days. I may swap out the 1 meg audio taper pot to a 250 k audio taper pot to give me a more linear volume swell, and take away some of the brightness of the guitar.

[GreySeraph]

Like everyone else said, it's on a steady road towards entrophy. Be careful about changing out your pots for other brands/models/k-ratings/etc though, as your sound might change ever so slightly.

[desertbluesman]

your sound might change ever so slightly.

 

Yep that is why I do change them out, to actually change the tone towards where I want it.

[PBall1]

Yes I used radio Shack cleaner for electronics. Usually works ok but I noticed it seems to be getting worse. I had an Epi SG copy which ate pots like everything and then I switched to Switch craft and traded for this Coronet. Actually the white SG was stolen from the store I had it on consignment at and they had to pay me for it. It was a nice factory second that I just had set up and some thief got a good axe. Thank you to everyone for your input. PBallar1. Still Rockin in NC.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Hmn; do you sweat a lot on your guitar, and if so is yours a particularly acidy brand of perspiration? (A friend of mine has INCREDIBLY corrosive sweat, he'll ruin your strings in minutes, I kid you not! )

 

Also, do you leave your guitar out on a stand a lot, to keep it handy? I do the same, but I can tell you that leaving it out of its case allows dust to get in there and crackle it up terrifically more fasterer. (Technical term. )

 

When I do spray some tuner-cleaner in a pot, I immediately rotate it fully back-and-forth very rapidly for no less than forty rotations.

[GreySeraph]

Why clean all this yourself when you can get it set up. It's like a floating trem...It takes forever to do it when you can just pay someone else to set up the whole guitar-- your time could be more efficiently spent jamming a rock tune, practicing a Bach fugue, figuring how to ascertain a pleasing solo to Giant Steps, or contemplating the meaning to the universe.

 

I mean, it's good to know and understand your guitar and hone all that, but after a point, hopefully I can find someone in here that'll agree that setting up your guitar can be hard to fit in a busy schedule. I'm sure most of you have jobs or go to school or something that takes up your attention...