I am going to do some simple work on my bass and thought I would ask what others do for a couple things.
First, I noticed that my bridge saddle screws felt a little catchy, dry and tight. I was thinking about hitting each with a tiny drop of light machine oil.
Next, one of my pots is scratchy and needs cleaning. I was just going to buy some non-spray contact cleaner and lube like deoxit for that.
Any recommendations for these kinds of things?
Unless your bridge saddle screws are rusty I wouldn’t oil them. You want them tight and unable to rattle loose from vibrations and lubing them up could create a problem. Personally I use medium strength (blue) Loctite threadlocker on mine.
I’ve never used non-spray contact cleaner but for scratchy pots the spray is great. If you use the spray I’d highly recommend removing the wiring harness to get it as far away from the instrument as possible (without having to un-solder anything) and putting a towel as a barrier between the instrument and pot. Even “plastic safe” contact cleaners could potentially ruin the finish on your bass.
Yeah thats why I was going to get the liquid and not the spray. Apparently for pots its perfect and you just do them in place. I’ve only used the sprays before myself.
Good call on the saddle screws. They aren’t rusty, they just are not smooth. Kind of scrapey feeling, but no corrosion that is visible at any rate.
I have heard people use a little bit of isopropyl alcohol for the potentiometers. My P-copy is starting to have a scratchy pot also, but I haven’t tried to clean it yet… so, no personal experience!