On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:15:15 -0800, "Blake"
wrote:

I just picked up a used guitar amplifier. One of the pots was a little bit
noisy, so I opened it up and sprayed all of the pots with DeoxIt D5 contact
cleaner. When I tried out the amp afterwards, all of the pots were quite
noisy. Much worse than before I cleaned them.

What happened? Did I damage the pots by "cleaning" them with the wrong
cleaner? (The label says it's for use on pots, but it really emphasized its
ability to remove oxidation from switches.) What's the preferred
cleaner/lubricant for potentiometers?


Did you allow the cleaner to evaporate out or blow it out with
compressed air?
I use a CRC contact cleaner that evaporates in seconds.
Sometimes the graphite used in pots flakes up and when cleaned with
spray cleaner actually washes off completely leaving metal to metal
contact inside the pot.