before you replace that next potentiometer

[Jimbilly]

I bought a '79 Ibanez bass the other day, I always like their MIJ basses. This one had a very scratchy tone pot with a bad 'spot' at zero where it would get pretty fuzzy (wiggling the shaft made it cut in and out). I sprayed it out with Caig, which didn't help the bad spot, and again with another cleaner, and then that tone pot would do nothing (stuck on full 'on').

Not only am I cheap, but I like keeping things original too:

You know those little crimp tabs that hold the pot all together? (4 on this one) I gently re-crimped each one with some larger pliers, and now that tone pot works great, it's like it just wasn't together tight enough. This would be worth a try before you give up and replace the next one.

[Disturber]

I've heard you can open them and clean them on the inside too. Never done it though.

[HAMERMAN]

I've heard you can open them and clean them on the inside too. Never done it though.

For the most part pots fail in four ways:

1) Dirt blocks contact between a wiper and the resistive element. I have had excellent luck fixing this problem. Once fixed a buddy's Marshall head this way. Must have been around a lot of smoke or something since every single pot was noisy before the fix.

2) The resistive element wears out. No way that I know of to fix this.

3) The resistive element cracks. No way that I know of to fix this unless the crack is in a "trace" area that doesn't get touched by the wiper, in that case it's possible that it could be fixed with conductive epoxy but I have never tried this. This kind of crack usually happens for a reason based on the construction of the device that the pot is in so it's best to replace anyway since a repaired pot would very likely just crack again anyway.

4) The connection between the resistive element and a solder pin goes bad. The three pins on the pot are usually riveted to the wiper element. When these connections go bad it can drive you nuts because tightening the rivet can make the pot seem OK again just about long enough to put everythign back together at which point it will invariably go bad again. Not worth the time or frustration.