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Need help cleaning pots on G&L Jazz

ibassforhim

ibassforhim

Mar 3, 2011
86
3
Arkansas
#1
So I have never done anything like this before so I am a bit nervous. I watched some YouTube videos of guys cleaning the pots on basses and it seemed so simple enough.

I took the screws out of the back of the bass and got my can of deoxid ready to go and from what I read and saw I just spray a bit into a tiny hole in the pot and work the knobs and your done! Except the pots on my bass have some sort of cap on them and no hole for spraying!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1398984513.413038.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1398984522.845438.jpg


See photos. I was nervous to try and pull the up or out so I just abandoned the job and posted here. Any thoughts? Advice? Should I leave this to a pro?

Thanks!!
 
#2
Going in the tiny holes you gotta give it a good dose to get it into the guts. If Deoxit is aerosol, give it three per pot. Don't close it up until you've cleaned up excess.

Better, if you can, spray it in where the solder lugs are: there's usually a big gap there.

Don't be afraid, you can't mess this up unless you pull a wire off.
 
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#3
96tbird said:
Going in the tiny holes you gotta give it a good dose to get it into the guts. If Deoxit is aerosol, give it three per pot. Don't close it up until you've cleaned up excess.

Better, if you can, spray it in where the solder lugs are: there's usually a big gap there.

Don't be afraid, you can't mess this up unless you pull a wire off.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much it. Pots that look like that are typically not totally sealed but they might be. As noted there is typically a slight gap where the solder tabs are. So turn the bass so the solder tabs are pointing straight up (and pot shaft is horizontal) and take the long deoxit snout and flood the pot around the terminals so the vertical position causes the stuff to run down into the pot. Work the pot from min to max a couple times and see if the noise has been fixed. Hopefully you will be lucky.

If not, (this is where news gets bad) there are only two ways to poof the pots. One is a special device sold by stewmac that lets you force cleaner down the bearing of the pot shaft. I've tried this without the special fitting and it usually does not work to just dribble cleaner on the shaft (knobs off of course and worse you don't want cleaner on your guitar finish etc.) So the only REAL fix, and this is only worth the trouble on rare vintage pots or those with impossible to find values, is to take the pot out of the bass. The back cover is held on with these little tabs that are bent over the front piece. Bend those tabs up and take the back cover off and poof the daylights out of the pot. Put the cover back on and rebend the tabs to hold it on (usually you cant get them as tight as it was originally).

Hence, my rule is that when encountering a non-poofable pot (note certain military style pots can't be opened at all!) just replace it and don't worry about cleaning the old one.
 
#4
There are most likely holes in your pots for cleaning, but they are probably on the side and might be impossible to see, or get to without unbolting the pot from the body and pulling it out (without removing any wires). I usually give it 3-4 sprays in the hole, and then with the bass plugged in, turn the knob back and forth until the scratchy sounds go away.
 

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