Vintage 1973 Pignose 7-100 sounds muddy (solid state)

[mltowler]

I just received a Pignose 7-100 today that I bought off Ebay, After putting fresh batteries I plugged in my guitar and turned it on. The volume was jumpy, I would play a string, and the sound would elevate, and decrease with backround crackling noises. I crank further and it gets more muddy, I know Pignoses are supposed to be fuzzy distorted, but there is definitely, the sound pops, and crackles. I looked around on the Web and it seems like with old amps such as this one, I should put in new transistors, which is something I just don't know how to do, or spray coolent on the transistors which seems to work for some people, However I couldn't identify a transistor

[Randall]

The first thing I would do before worrying about transistors (which I doubt is the problem) would be to clean the volume control. Find a radio shack and get some contact cleaner and spray a little into the back opening of the volume pot, and then turn it a few times. Could be as simple as that.

[mltowler]

The first thing I would do before worrying about transistors (which I doubt is the problem) would be to clean the volume control. Find a radio shack and get some contact cleaner and spray a little into the back opening of the volume pot, and then turn it a few times. Could be as simple as that.

I was about to go out to Radio Shack, when I moved my amp i head a rattling, I removed the speaker and broken plastic fell out from the speaker screen? or speaker protector? Anyway once I put the speaker back on and played the amp it sound 100% better, strange fix, but simple, and it worked. Thanks for your advice, though I will consider it in the future of it starts acting up.