Unresponsiveness to thumbwheel control

[Phil Hartman]

I have a single volume only thumb wheel control on my arch-top. I bought it and had it installed in Dallas prior to my 65th birthday - I am soon to be 69. When first plugged in, it works great- then after about an hour it gets stat-icky & sometimes feedback & sometimes refuses to work at all. It is in compliment with a Kent Armstrong pickup. Is it dirty? or do I just need to replace it? Can't seem to find it anymore on the Stew-mac website- they only have the tone & volume controls. Help- this was my go to guitar. Also, each time this has happened it was attached to an amp with a guitar 1/4" to what looked like a mike plug-in on the amp. I have not tried it with the 1/4" to 1/4" setup to see if the other set-up is the problem. Thing is, I've not had this problem with a similar set up 'til now,

[David King]

I'd try cleaning it with a spray pot lube like Caig Deoxit 5% and see if that helps.
The Shatten kit with V and T is about the only thing around short of using a micro pot with a knob on top which is what everyone else does.
Alps makes an excellent 9mm panel mount pot if you an any room for it under your pick guard. It takes about 1/4" of space and a 7mm hole through the PG.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9mm-500k-Audio- ... 1516789244

[Peter Wilcox]

Also, each time this has happened it was attached to an amp with a guitar 1/4" to what looked like a mike plug-in on the amp.

By mic plug-in, do you mean a 3 conductor XLR? Have you tried a different cable? I don't know why a balanced cable would cause problems after an hour or so, but I'd definitely try a regular unbalanced 1/4" guitar cable before doing anything else.

[Phil Hartman]

I got a bottle of the QD electronic cleaner. Is that OK? Have never messed with electronics. And, yes it was a 3 pin XLR- I have not cleaned yet, nor tried the 1/4" cable, but will this weekend. Thanks

[David King]

I'm confused at what the XLR is doing for us there. Is there also a TRS 3 circuit "stereo" 1/4 inch phono plug at the guitar end for a balanced, low impedance pickup? As far as I know Kent only makes high impedance pickups but they could use a balanced output using a center tap for common mode rejection if someone thought that was going to reduce cable noise or some such.

[Peter Wilcox]

I got a bottle of the QD electronic cleaner. Is that OK? Have never messed with electronics. And, yes it was a 3 pin XLR- I have not cleaned yet, nor tried the 1/4" cable, but will this weekend. Thanks

That cleaner should work. I'd try to avoid getting it on the guitar finish, though it probably won't hurt it.