Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Result !! I unsoldered the two volume pots and bathed them in methylated spirit very thoroughly. The grit and dirt that came out surprised me. I then blew them dry and made sure the meths had evaporated. I re-installed them and Bingo ! The bass is as quiet as it ever was now, the hum has gone ! Proof that the WD-40 was obviously causing a ground problem. We are up and running and I am one happy guy tonight ! Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

Great news!

Thanks for the feedback, Keith. One more scenerio to remember.

ROCK OUT LIKE MOTORHEAD!!!

Glad it's OK!

Just remember to keep the WD-40 for auto parts and squeaky door hinges.

Make that "... keep the WD-40 for cleaning, not lubricating auto parts and squeaky door hinges ..." because WD-40 is not a lubricant, it's a cleaner.

And Keith, congrats for getting your problem solved.

Thanks everyone. Believe me the WD-40 is relegated to bicycles and cleaning the lawn mower now ! Now hold on a minute that lawn mower has been playing up and getting very difficult to start of late ! Just jesting, but as you can imagine I am no fan of the stuff now ! It has been a valuable lesson learned and after playing bass for 27 years I should have known better. The truth of it is that I have never had a bass go faulty on me in all those years so I have never had to get too involved ! It is amazing really. I felt as though I had lost a limb whilst it was out of action. We are all ship and ready for gigging again now though ! One thing is for sure that if I get noisy pots in the future they will get a blast of compressed air and that is it !

If you get noisy pots in the future, the compressed air may not work, in which case you should use De-Oxit, or another cleaner meant for electronic parts like pots. Its readily available and not all that expensive.

I'll add a side note: If you have to clean pots, Acetone is another thing that works well since it evaporates quickly. You would not want to use it on anything that used plastic shafts or casings however. Nylon shaft CTS pots are fine with Acetone. I would still treat the pots with De-Oxit after the acetone application to make sure no residue is around. I would suggest to do this yourself to make sure nothing is left of the stuff you used also.

How did I find out that acetone works too you ask? Someone I know accidently got loctite inside some pots which froze them up pretty well. Acetone is listed as a solvent for loctite, and putting some in the pot and rotating the shaft a lot cleaned out the loctite rather well.

WD-40 is not a suitable product for use on bicycles. As pointed out above, it is mainly a cleaner and not a very good lubricant. Bicycles need top quality grease in all bearings and a light chain lubricant on chains. NO WD-40 anywhere! Take it from a former bike racer.

Correction - The WD40 is only going to get used on the engine of my Motorcycle ! Other than that it can go in the bin !! AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH !

Thanks again for advice everybody.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease dont anybody say that WD-40 is bad for Motorcycle engines !

Don't use WD-40 on firearms either

wd-40 is no good for chain lube! its not recomended as a string lube either.

My neighbor uses it on his car to remove tar!

I watched him and was amazed. It didn't appear to do any short term damage to the finish. Anyone else hear of this?

Yeah, they use it here in Michigan also. Tried it, unimpressed. Too much work, there are more effective products out there.