Bad volume pot?

jeff l · #1 04-15-2003, 10:43 AM

Have any of you ever had a volume pot go bad? I ask 'cause yesterday when I was playing I was getting volume drops ranging from severe to total drop out. Fiddling with the volume pot brought it back to life each time.

Would this sound like a bad pot or maybe just a cold solder joint?

little wing · #2 04-15-2003, 12:37 PM

Proberly there is rust inside or meaby ome greese applied to it or something like that...

steve · #3 04-15-2003, 08:36 PM

Contact cleaner, sprayed directly inside the pot (from inside the control cavity, spray into the open slot of the cylinder casing by the contacts).
After you spritz it, move the knob back and forth a few times.
This should fix 'er up.

Drew · #4 04-16-2003, 02:26 AM

Steve, you again.

I think that's been happening to the pot in my 7620- i LOVE the thing's taper, it's just orgiastic, but i hook my pinkie behind it to do swells, and with pressure coming from that side, it makes some scratchy sounds that get picked up by overdrive (it's inaudible, or so very nearly so i never noticed, at least, unplugged). With pressure from the other side, it's dead silent.

Does this sound like a problem for contact cleaner? and this is something i can grab at any radio shack, right?

-Drew

Rich · #5 04-16-2003, 02:31 AM

Any problem with a noisey pot or switch and contact cleaner is the only cure. If it don't work you're soldering

steve · #6 04-16-2003, 11:43 PM

Drew,
Yuppers - Radio Shack cleaner will do it.
You just might find, though, that that pot is going bye-bye.
Does it rock side-to-side a little?
I bet it does.
Contact cleaner may well keep it going for a nice while longer, but I bet that pot's worn/wearing in a way that will ultimately retire it.

My observation from my own use, as well as that of my good friend who is using two RG7-620VKs - the extra weight of the metal knobs seems to contribute to earlier demise of the pots.
I kid you not.
You probably use your volume knob a lot, just as I do. On my RG7, I've already had to replace the volume TWICE, and it's a '00 GN model, bought new. I put in WD pots (next time, which is going to be SOON, it will be DiMarzio...) My '91 UV7BK (Strat-type green plastic knobs) has been replaced exactly once, many many years ago. Still solid.

Food for thought. My friend's experience is looking to be quite similar to mine, as well. He has an old RG560 with plastic knobs, and it's still going... His RG7s have both been replaced with DiMarzios...

(And, Rich's succinct post is spot-on: if contact cleaner doesn't fix it, then it's replacement time...)
=]