Recently I found myself working in the depths of the North of England when my trusty white Strat developed an irksome complaint. The volume control started making an awful crackling noise whenever I turned it!
The consequences of such a malady are dire indeed:
– No more sensitive Jeff Beck volume swells! (or as my old teacher Pete Friesen used to call them, ‘whale sex’ noises)
– No more Yngwie Malmsteen’s Black Star!
– No more Cathedral by Van Halen!
And more pressing to the gig at hand, I was unable to silence my guitar volume after songs without causing a crackle, I was unable to make those small adjustments to the volume control to find the sweet spots of tone and the right level of overdrive for the particular passage. What a pain!
There are two diagnoses for this issue as suggested by a tech friend:
1) ‘Dirt and corrosion are interrupting the contacts on the pot – spray some contact cleaner on the offending parts.’
2) ‘Not all dirt and corrosion is fixable with contact cleaner. If you have a scratchy volume control, it may be best to replace it. Pots are cheap and the replacement job is a pretty easy one.’
Rather than do a DIY job, I took the chance to visit Mack and Liz at ADR Soundsense, (you might remember them from my Amp Death Emergency incident).
We stopped by, had a cup of tea and a chat while they replaced the pot right away – great! After a quick string change, Liz even showed me some very tricky one-fingered tandem country bends (still working on those!).
Instant guitar repair + free guitar lesson + cup of tea = well worth a visit!
I wholeheartedly recommend these guys. They’re extremely knowledgeable (when I arrived they were in the middle of rebuilding a vintage VOX amp practically from scratch).
Now if only they’d open up shop down here in London…
With Mack from ADR Soundsense
Some classic volume swell songs:
Jeff Beck, a true original:
Eddie rocks it!
Yngwie at 0:50:
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