It's in the heading -- I have a crackly passive monitor controller, a crackly input on my guitar and its pickup selector is also being dodgy too -- would Deoxit do the job for all of these and would you genuinely recommend it over a cheaper contact cleaner? (Does such a thing exist?)

p.s. a more interesting question: I've just come across the Stillwell Audio plugins and they look great! SOS only have only reviewed one of their 'warmth' plugins, but I was wondering who has experience with the EQs, comps etc?

Quote mjfe2:

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It's in the heading -- I have a crackly passive monitor controller, a crackly input on my guitar and its pickup selector is also being dodgy too -- would Deoxit do the job for all of these and would you genuinely recommend it over a cheaper contact cleaner? (Does such a thing exist?)

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I use Servisol, whichi s about 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of DeOxit. I have never done a comparison but the Servisol seems to do what it says on the tin

I use (UK made) 'EML Electrolube' (fnarr!) which a machinist mate picked up for me in a..err..machinist supply shop.. for about €5, and has served me well on crackly pots and pickup selectors. Some crackly guitar inputs I've been asked to fix over the years turned out to be oxidised/gunged-up contacts, which were resolved with a rub of fine wet & dry paper and some EML applied with a cloth.

I am always happy to use Super Servisol 10 on any guitar I'm working on, including my own. It's a perfectly decent switch and contact cleaner. I keep on meaning to get a can of De-Oxit, but always baulk at the price when the Servisol does what I need perfectly well.

For the monitor controller and pick-up selector I'd use the switch cleaner, but for the jack socket on the guitar I would take it out first and have a look. If it is a fancy enclosed or barrel socket I would give it a good squirt of the cleaner, but most guitars have good, old fashioned, skeleton sockets. If they are knackered it costs peanuts to replace them, but most respond nicely to a one inch square piece of 600 grit wet & dry paper. Gently polish off any tarnish on the tip connector, then roll it into a tube and insert it into the socket and turn it a few times to polish off any tarnish there. Next grab a pair of long nose pliers, take a grip on the metal of the tip connector where it is attached to the base and bend it a fraction of a mm tighter. That extra pressure will make the tip and sleeve connections much better, and removing the tarnish will do the rest.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Now I KNOW I shall get some stick for this but I have used WD-40 as a general purpose pot and switch cleaner for more than 40 years. It does have at least one saving grace, I never found a plastic it would "eat".

I also got the ok from a man at Alps.

You can buy nice big cans of it at RockBottom and similar stores.

Dave.

Quote ef37a:

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Now I KNOW I shall get some stick for this but I have used WD-40 as a general purpose pot and switch cleaner for more than 40 years. It does have at least one saving grace, I never found a plastic it would "eat".

I also got the ok from a man at Alps.

You can buy nice big cans of it at RockBottom and similar stores.

Dave.

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WD40 can make things worse - it isn't a solvent as such but can leave an insulated coating on things, it dissipates water. I know this to my cost, back in the day when I bought an 8 track open reel multi-trasck recorder that would sometimes drop out on some channels, I was told that sometimes the relays would not make contact. So I got out my magic tool toolbox (WD40) and sprayed it into the relays - from then on it wouldn't work at all because what in fact I had done was spray a non-conductive coating onto the relay contacts - so that was an £800 recorder reduced to junk!

Quote OneWorld:

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Quote ef37a:

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Now I KNOW I shall get some stick for this but I have used WD-40 as a general purpose pot and switch cleaner for more than 40 years. It does have at least one saving grace, I never found a plastic it would "eat".

I also got the ok from a man at Alps.

You can buy nice big cans of it at RockBottom and similar stores.

Dave.

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WD40 can make things worse - it isn't a solvent as such but can leave an insulated coating on things, it dissipates water. I know this to my cost, back in the day when I bought an 8 track open reel multi-trasck recorder that would sometimes drop out on some channels, I was told that sometimes the relays would not make contact. So I got out my magic tool toolbox (WD40) and sprayed it into the relays - from then on it wouldn't work at all because what in fact I had done was spray a non-conductive coating onto the relay contacts - so that was an £800 recorder reduced to junk!

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+1 If there's one cleaner I have had experience with it's WD-40, which definitely makes things worse!

TOLD you I would get stick!

I would guess that there is no universal solvent/cleaner that is safe to use on every component (don't, e.g. wipe your Purdies down with WD, it is a rust inhibitor and will take off the blueing!)

Electrolube was safe on most things except the oscillator section of wavechange switches where it soaked into the paxolin and caused the HT to track over.

Caveat Emptor!
Dave.

Quote ef37a:

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Caveat Emptor!

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is an anagram for 'suckers beware!'

Quote OneWorld:

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Quote ef37a:

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Caveat Emptor!

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is an anagram for 'suckers beware!'

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No it isn't. No S or B for a start!

Dave.

Quote ef37a:

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TOLD you I would get stick!

I would guess that there is no universal solvent/cleaner that is safe to use on every component (don't, e.g. wipe your Purdies down with WD, it is a rust inhibitor and will take off the blueing!)

Electrolube was safe on most things except the oscillator section of wavechange switches where it soaked into the paxolin and caused the HT to track over.

Caveat Emptor!
Dave.

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Ah! Fond memories of that tiny orange arc deep inside the wafer accompanied by a thin wisp of pungent smoke.

Oh how we laughed

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

"Oh how we laughed"

Indeed! And how much did we enjoy the day's work of changing the switch? 'Course, it was ALWAYS a LMShortwave set wasn't it? And, AND! Even MORE fun if the solder iron caught the tuning drive chord!

Dave.