Volume pot noise

[Pete si]

The volume pot on my 95 epic is noisy. I’ve tried the 20+ turning thing but it’s still noisy. Any thoughts, please?

[FC Bass]

Check if it still makes good contact with the silver shielding paint.

[Picure]

There is actually a way to clean the pots, you have to spray a bit of contact cleaner from the top of the volume pot in the little opening. It totally worked for my Series 1 and got rid of the squeals from my filters.

[Pete si]

Ok, thanx. I will definitely try this!

[lbpesq]

It’s a little expensive for what it is, but Stewmac has a clever little gizmo for cleaning pots from the top, like above.

Bill, tgo

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/tools-by-job/tools-for-maintenance/pot-cleaning-cap/

[jazzyvee]

There is actually a way to clean the pots, you have to spray a bit of contact cleaner from the top of the volume pot in the little opening. It totally worked for my Series 1 and got rid of the squeals from my filters.

That is what forum member and electronics whizz Phil Price did to my 1980 series 1 to clear the squeals once he had a look over it.  it has been squeal free ever since.

[Pete si]

I saw on Amazon WD-40 makes a product that does the trick. They charge ~$15 but the reviews say Home Depot sells it for half as much.

[Pete si]

I tried the contact cleaner to no avail so I’m gonna try FC’s suggestion in his post here. I have a feeling I’m gonna need a new pot. If it comes down to this I will be looking for help doing that. The only experience I have with electronics is changing a light bulb.

[JimmyJ]

Hey Peter,

It would be unusual for a potentiometer to actually "go bad", particularly those used by Alembic.  No corners are cut with their choice of components.  Furthermore, at least on the Series models, the pots they use are sealed and self cleaning.  Meaning, they DO NOT encourage the use of spray cleaners or lubricants.  Those chems may fix things temporarily but introducing any "gunk" could lead to later problems. 

Having said that, sometimes pot noise can be caused by other components failing and leaking DC current into the audio chain where it is not meant to be - even from the amp's input side of the cable.  You'd need to dig deeper to know if that's the case here and I don't know enough about the Epic circuitry to know if it's even a possibility.  Maybe somebody can chime in with other ideas.

One way or another I'm confident you'll get it sorted out.

Jimmy J

[mario_farufyno]

I damaged my Rogue's volume pot trying to get the cap off it just before met the Club (and learn the proper way). It worked fairly fine over almost 10 years of slow-increasing noise/pops until it completely fail. So, it can happen, just need to be rude (and stupid) enough.

[mica]

FC suggested to make sure it's contacting the shielding paint. To elaborate, you want to take the knob off (remember to pry off the cap and loosen the collet), and make sure the 1/2" nut is still firmly seated. Over time, the wood cells are crushed by the pressure of this nut and it will slowly over time (like say from 1995) loosen a little. In fact, all the nuts will do this, as well as the screws in the strap pins, and even the tailpiece (though it's RARELY a problem).

Note you don't want to crank it down super hard - just make sure the nut is snugly seated.