Anyone ever clean the pots on a Yamaha em-150II?

[g1]

Yes, you will need some kind of external phantom power box/preamp to run condenser mics.

[km6xz]

Just spraying into pots has the downside of ruining the feel of the pots due to washing out the shaft lubricant. it will feel looser and gritty once the shaft lube is gone. No external lube can return the pot to original feel. If very careful in using a syringe to ad a tiny drop of De-Oxit into the pot resist track, positioned so that no liquid runs towards the shaft. De-Oxit is excellent for deoxidizing and treating pots, switches and connectors but it is not a general purpose cleaner even if most techs use it as such to wash out dirt. That is why pots wear out much faster after that style of cleaning.
You can open the pot and clean with a Q-Tip with a tiny drop of IPA (alcohol ) to remove dirt and then an even smaller drop of De-Oxit on the resist and use the other side of the Q-tip to evenly coat the surface of the resist. When it is open, clean the wiper and retention the spring metal to make firmer contact with the resist trace. Doing that slightly moves the point that the wiper contact meets the resist trace which means the wiper is now on unused portion of the track. Reassemble and test.
Most techs use way too much De-Oxit, it is most effective with barely coating the metal or carbon surface, if you can see it as liquid, it is too much. A can or liquid concentrate should last a busy tech a very long time instead of the 2-5 cans a week most use.

[Jazz P Bass]

Not so much of an issue now a days, but smoke & tar residue in pots can be a real challenge to remove.

[tedmich]

Some old techs report using Deoxit D5 to flood away contaminates followed by a blast from a low temp heat gun to get rid of condensate then some CRC Switch Cleaner Lubricant PN 2001 (since Channel Master Shield became unavailable). Nye and others uses real fluorinated grease in an oil base to lube pots during manufacture, without that grease the pot won't ever feel or wear the same.

[52 Bill]

Can't disagree with much said here, but just try and spray a tiny amount of any cleaner. Really hard to do. The bottle and brush would be the way to apply the least amount of any cleaner.

As for the feel of the pot, the construction style will have a lot to do with that. CTS and some other companies apply the lubricant to the shaft and to the back of the wiper assembly, where it contacts the inside of the pot case. I've seen some instances where the grease has hardened and glued the wiper solidly in one position.

Most Japanese pots have the wiper mechanically set in position, so that there is no contact point on the rear of the wiper assembly. All of the lubricant grease is on the shaft where it inserts into the threaded mounting collar.