Cleaning Moog Modular pots.

nicholas d. kent · Post by **nicholas d. kent** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:22 pm

Actually I have something that uses the same brand and size of pots I've seen in a III modular. The symptom consists of "scratchy" pots that add noises to the signal when turned.

So my questions are.

How would one best get inside them to do anything?

How would one clean them without winding up with a worse situation a short time down the road? Obviously I'm not expecting to do something (other than replacing them) and then never have an issue again. I'm looking for people's experiences that turned out satisfactory.

OysterRock · Post by **OysterRock** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:30 pm

The best pot cleaner out there is DeOxit. You may have to special order it, but it works and doesn't damage your components.

You can get it from:
http://www.caig.com/

Remember: A little goes a long way!

nicholas d. kent · Post by **nicholas d. kent** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:43 pm

Thanks, I have a can from a couple years back but I'm always kind of wary because different pots and sliders use different materials and I want to avoid the "well they worked great for a week and then it just got worse" situation

And how best would one get those open?

I've found out they are Allen Bradley pots. Someone else is pretty sure the only way to get inside is to drill a hole.

rlainhart · Post by **rlainhart** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:34 am

You can usually clean dirty pots without opening them up or applying cleaner at all. Just rotate the pot rapidly 20 times or so through the full range of its rotation - try putting your finger firmly alongside the pot and running your finger up and down rapidly. If you have to pot online, you should be able to hear the wiper noise diminish and eventually disappear as you rotate the knob. Give it a try - with a little practice, you should be able to clean up most noisy pots.

Kevin Lightner · Post by **Kevin Lightner** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:32 pm

The worst pot cleaner is DeOxit.

theglyph · Post by **theglyph** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 2:58 am

Kevin Lightner wrote:The worst pot cleaner is DeOxit.

I got suspicious when I saw it at "Radio Shack".

What do you recommend?

OysterRock · Post by **OysterRock** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:40 am

I was recommended DeoxIT D5 by a Hammond tech to clean the drawbars of an A100. It worked great. It also worked great on my Moog EQ. Cleared up all the crackling and didn't leave any residue. Can you elaborate on why it is the "worst"?

peak · Post by **peak** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:02 am

OysterRock wrote:Can you elaborate on why it is the "worst"?

Still waiting to hear why it's bad.

nicholas d. kent · Post by **nicholas d. kent** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:09 pm

peak wrote:
OysterRock wrote:Can you elaborate on why it is the "worst"?

Still waiting to hear why it's bad.

That's kind of why I posted this and mentioned a specific kind of pot.

So firstly I've heard some chemicals that might be good for some particular kinds of sliders and or pots might disolve the carbon or whatever's in the different specific pots in question.

Also I guess there's the overall issue of spraying anything, even just a little, where does the residue go? I guess hopefully you can work it off to the side by twisting the pot enough... because in the long run you don't want a dirt mixed with gunk layer still there.

Mainly I just don't want to duplicate a common story that you do something you guess is okay. Or do something non-specific that is said to generally work. It's great 5 minutes later, but it then goes bad or gets sticky or something a month late. So I want to try to confirm from actual experience that something likely won't happen by doing x to these specific pots.

thanx!