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Originally Posted by unity bass A more effective treatment is to give a little shot of contact cleaner (like deoxIT) into the hole in the back of the knob (inside the control cavity) then do the turning thing. |
Definitely don't use DeOxit on pots. DeOxit is great for switches, connectors, wire-wound rheostats, etc., but it can dissolve carbon and plastic conductive elements in potentiometers (for volume controls, tone controls, etc.). If you use DeOxit, the control might seem better for awhile, but you're most likely doing damage. Additionally, DeOxit doesn't have the viscosity to give your controls that smooth, damped feeling that they most likely had originally.
Fortunately, Caig
http://www.caig.com makes a product expressly for plastic conductive and carbon pots. It's called CaiLube MCL. You need to buy both a large can of 5% solution, and a small can of 100% solution. To treat the offending control, first spray a bunch of the 5% solution into the control to clean things out. Rotate the control a bunch of times. Spray again. Rotate again. Then, wait for some time for the carrier to evaporate. Finally, spray in some of the 100% (it's thicker, and will restore the correct feel, as well as lubricate things to prevent damage to the element).
Hopefully, your pots have an opening to accept these products. If they're sealed pots, you can experiment with one of those fittings that screws on to the mounting threads of the pot. I haven't had great luck with this on pots where the shaft/bushing tolerance is too tight. There's probably no way that the 100% stuff can be forced through the bushing.
Buying a new, high quality pot is the most dependable fix.
I can hear a little crackle? 
