Scratchy Controls

Controls go scratchy because the sliding contact inside the control makes intermittent contact with the resistive element, and you hear a little "gritch" every time it makes or breaks contact. This can be caused by:

• Old, worn controls
• Dust and dirt inside the controls
• Poor quality controls with bits of the resistor coming off inside.

You can sometimes restore a control to non-scratchiness by spraying contact cleaner inside the pot and turning the shaft rapidly to clean the dirt and stuff off the resistive element; however, the problem is likely to recur. Getting a new pot is the best fix. If you decide to try the spray cleaner trick, use one that leaves a lubricant on the surface to lessen the wear and make it longer until you have to do this again.

Scratchiness is a thousand times worse if there is DC across the pot, so you might check for that. DC across any pot except the bias pots is usually an indication that a coupling capacitor is leaking, so check for that.