Fender Blender Pots

[Never2Late]

I bought a 1969 (first mistake) Fender Blender vintage fuzz pedal from Guitar Center (second mistake). When it does work, the tone is killer. Functionality is pretty spotty - so I'm thinking that the foot switches and pots might need replacement. The Pots have a date-code of 1969 - would replacing the pots affect tone in a stomp box, or do they just control voltage to the 'real' components, and their replacement just makes a box functional again?

Cleaning the pots with a conventional spray cleaner doesn't appear to get them to work too much - functionality is 'spotty' at best, and power delivery to get the pedal to 'work' is touch-n-go.

[RichRS6]

What did you use to clean the pots?

There are different sorts of cleaner, some work better than others.

[Never2Late]

My amp tech used a spray substance he claimed was quite good/expensive, and showered their internals with the stuff but I'm open to suggestions on what would work better.

[Never2Late]

Looks like the primary issue was power delivery and the 40-year-old capacitors were 'all-over-the-map' in values and stability. They'll need to come out. The pots seem to be fine.

[murkat]

^ sometimes, that is what makes it's tone appealing...

[rj2858]

^^^ but that wouldn't tie to the problem of power delivery, would it?

[Never2Late]

^ sometimes, that is what makes it's tone appealing...

Agree, but the signal was getting so corrupted, the basic circuit was unstable. Some of the caps led a hard life - these early boxes only ran on battery power, with the 9V just 'floating around' inside the pedal to bang on the exposed caps. Two had backed-out of the board they 'used' to be soldered-to - we tried to save them but the leads were damaged and one of the caps was starting to crumble apart. When the pedal would come 'on', it was sonically difficult to control. Now we have tone and blend controls back, and my amp tech says the device blows-away a similar-aged Maestro pedal he's hosting on his board. He's re-wired the power completely and re-soldered the foot switches, that seems to have solved the power issue - the pedal is LOUD.