Has anyone opened and cleaned the pot on a Moog pedal?

[jwolford]

I am going to do this anyway, but I thought I'd check in here first.

The Mix knob on my MF104Z delay has suddenly become scratchy. While I have no interest in opening this thing up, the scratchy sound is irritating, as I do a lot of tweaking on the fly (that's the point right!).

Any potential snags in opening this up and using some Deoxit on the offending pot?

Just thought I'd check before diving in, thanks.

[jwolford]

OK, done.

Not the worst cleaning I've done, nor the easiest.

The worst part was keeping the washers in place and pots aligned when reassembling. I was worried about bending things when pulling apart and reassembling. Things seem to "flex" during the process.

But scratchy mix pot no more!

[EricK]

I think the only snag was the fact that you put deoxit on there.

[jwolford]

I think the only snag was the fact that you put deoxit on there.

What's wrong with Deoxit? The pots are not quite as smooth and silky as they were before, is that what you are talking about? I don't really mind it that much. But now the knobs now feel more like my 7 year old MF101 instead of a 2 year old pedal.

What should I have used? Is there anything that I can do that will undo what the Deoxit did to the pots?

My main reason for doing this was:
-I really did not want to be without the unit for any length of time
-I have had bad luck with local service.
-I hate paying people to do things that I can do myself. (admittedly this has gotten me into trouble, but only one one or two occasions)

[EricK]

First, Im not a tech and I know jack about electronics.

But a search for Deoxit will yield many instances of bad experiences, and even recently a thread in which Moog manuals advised against using it.

[jwolford]

I did not search for Deoxit specifically, looked for "cleaning, scratchy, dirty pot" etc...

Looks to be a mixed bag, some saying it's fine, and the manual from the 70's stating that it may collect dust over time. All I know is my problem is solved for now. I should probably contact Moog directly to get some suggestions.

Thanks for the tip,

[EricK]

Best of luck.