Blackstar Head pots scratchy

[fredcapo]

Repaired a Blackstar head but several pots seem to have bad spots. They are small square pots that I cannot find a spot to inject Deoxit... Any trick to get some spray onto the wiper? I'd hate to have to replace them. Thanks.

[soundguruman]

Repaired a Blackstar head but several pots seem to have bad spots. They are small square pots that I cannot find a spot to inject Deoxit... Any trick to get some spray onto the wiper? I'd hate to have to replace them. Thanks.

remove from circuit board, disassemble, clean them out, reassemble, solder them back in.
that's all you can do, except replace them...
I take them apart and swab them out with Q tips and deoxit D100.
Then I give them a drink of deoxit G100 before I reassemble them.
Sometimes, I take whatever parts I can get and rebuild the worst ones.



The aftermath of mode 4 repair.
Marshall? you put "these" in a $2000 guitar amp?
my lofty perception is shattered....
actually mode 4, I like it, it's shred-o-riffic, except for the controls.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers, including Marshall, Kustom etc..are using these cheap 11mm square pots.
(see Marshall Mode 4, what a nightmare)
They are junk. They wear out really fast, they break really easily, and there's no way to clean them.
(the KNOB costs 10X more than the pot does) And the big giant metal knob makes the control wear out 10 times faster, just from the weight!
There is a basic shortage of replacements. The manufacturers like Alps want me to order 1000 pieces to get just the few I need.
There are so many different shaft lengths, and styles, for different knobs, that no distributor wants to stock them all...in fact almost nobody will stock them...

And on top of that, double sided boards, plated thru holes, very time consuming and labor intensive to remove them intact..
One step closer to planned obsolescence. A total pain in the rear.

I HOPE you don't buy an amp with these.
I could not think of a worse choice for professional sound equipment. Idiocy.

[Enzo]

Set the thing so its shaft point up towards the sky. Now dribble some Deoxit along the shaft. Some should work its way into the pot.


Likewise, consire its construction. BY puttting spray right up against it, you may get some that finds its way inside. Since it takes little of the Deoxit to work, all it takes is a small amount getting through.


Hey, what's to lose by trying?