Found a $5 fix for scratchy pot noise on my old distortion pedal

I was over at a surplus electronics shop in Portland last Saturday, digging through bins for random parts. Noticed a guy buying a bunch of Deoxit D5 spray for cleaning old radios, and he told me it works wonders on scratchy guitar pots too. Went home, sprayed a tiny bit into the pot openings on my beat up DS-1, cycled it back and forth maybe 10 times. The crackle is totally gone now, cost me like $5 for the can. Has anyone else tried a specific cleaner that works better for sealed pots that can't be sprayed directly?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_wilson5d ago

Had a buddy who tried fixing his scratchy crybaby wah with WD40 cause that's all he had. Worked for like a week then it got even worse somehow and started dripping oily gunk everywhere. He ended up having to completely disassemble it and clean everything with isopropyl alcohol just to get the WD40 residue out. Total nightmare compared to just buying the right stuff upfront. The Deoxit D5 is definitely the way to go for any pot that you can actually get the nozzle into.

nora545d ago

Oh wow, that reminds me of the time I fixed a squeaky office chair with cooking spray and it actually worked lol.