I have an Ibanez SR655E which I really enjoy but it seems unhappy to have been taken from California, USA to Thailand. My apartment in Thailand is air-conditioned (think hot and very humid) but whenever I leave I switch the air conditioning off as electricity here is somewhat expensive. I can only guess this is causing moisture buildup inside of the metallic parts (think potentiometers). After only 3 months whenever I adjust any of the tone/ pickup/ volume pots I can hear a faint but audible scratching sound. I guess I could spray contact cleaner into the pots if they have any openings in them but that doesn’t sound totally safe. Any ideas?
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I’d recommend something like Deoxit or other liquid contact cleaner, a drop in the pot hole. Then twist the pot back and forth for a while.
You can sometimes improve or even fix dirty pots by twisting the pot repeatedly for its full range without any cleaner in it, as well.
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What @howard said.
Metal and humidity don’t mix well.
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Wow, just turning each of the 5 pots 50 times each fixed the problem with no chemicals that would be harmful to both my bass and the environment. Every time I pick up my bass now I twiddle each pot a few times as a preventative measure. Thanks so much.
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Cool. That’s worked for me too.
Dirty pots are among the easiest problems to fix, along with “fret buzz” (which usually just needs a setup). Good to look out for when people are selling used basses and mention it - often the problem will clean up immediately, like you found.
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My bass had some scratching on the volume poti right out of the box. Fortunatly disappeared with some usage.