Peavey 5150 EVH amp head: Noisy Potentiometer fix?

[Joe P.]

Hi folks,

I own a Peavey 5150 EVH amp head, an early model purchased way back in
1991 or 1992.

The amp suffers from a couple noisy pots.

Can I apply some type of contact cleaner to the potentiometers to
eliminate the noise (which will allow me to avoid having to remove
them from the PCB)?

Or are these potentiometers sealed (thus derailing my plan to apply a
fix without having to remove/replace them)?


Thanks--
Joe

[John Wood]

Post by Joe P.
Hi folks,
I own a Peavey 5150 EVH amp head, an early model purchased way back in
1991 or 1992.
The amp suffers from a couple noisy pots.
Can I apply some type of contact cleaner to the potentiometers to
eliminate the noise (which will allow me to avoid having to remove
them from the PCB)?
Or are these potentiometers sealed (thus derailing my plan to apply a
fix without having to remove/replace them)?
Thanks--
Joe

Do I smell a job for...WD40...?!?
(Dunh Dunh DAAAAA...!)

Just kidding. Absolutely DO NOT USE WD40!

Caig Pro Gold is the choice here. If, in fact, there's opening to spray it in.
If not then a replacement is in order. Aarrgh...

Good luck.

John

[Mike Schway]

Post by John Wood

Post by Joe P.
Hi folks,
I own a Peavey 5150 EVH amp head, an early model purchased way back in
1991 or 1992.
The amp suffers from a couple noisy pots.
Can I apply some type of contact cleaner to the potentiometers to
eliminate the noise (which will allow me to avoid having to remove
them from the PCB)?
Or are these potentiometers sealed (thus derailing my plan to apply a
fix without having to remove/replace them)?
Thanks--
Joe

Do I smell a job for...WD40...?!?
(Dunh Dunh DAAAAA...!)
Just kidding. Absolutely DO NOT USE WD40!
Caig Pro Gold is the choice here. If, in fact, there's opening to spray it in.
If not then a replacement is in order. Aarrgh...
Good luck.
John

It's usually pretty obvious where to spray the cleaner (usually into the
slot where the 3 terminals leave the body of the pot) but some Peavey
pots look like they're sealed. These are the ones with the squarish
profile and plastic body. On these, you usually can blow a little Caig
D-5 cleaner into the corners if you place the nozzle right up against
the corner between the phenolic wafer and the body. Work the pot back
and forth a half-dozen times. Clean up your overspray with a Q-tip.

--Mike

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Mike Schway | [Picture your favorite quote here]
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[RonSonic]

Post by Joe P.
Hi folks,
I own a Peavey 5150 EVH amp head, an early model purchased way back in
1991 or 1992.
The amp suffers from a couple noisy pots.
Can I apply some type of contact cleaner to the potentiometers to
eliminate the noise (which will allow me to avoid having to remove
them from the PCB)?
Or are these potentiometers sealed (thus derailing my plan to apply a
fix without having to remove/replace them)?

You can spray 'em. I highly recommend Caig's DeOxit D5. Great stuff, use it on
everything except my girlfriend.

Ron

[Thorny]

I thought those could be cleaned with caig deoxit. I have done it
before. I don't recall exactly what the looked like, but I did not
remove them to clean them.

I would suggest you have an amp tech do that, and also do an
adjustable bias mod for the amp. That amp has a HUGE improvement in
tone when an adjustable bias in installed and set properly. The amp
runs so cold otherwise it sounds horrible on the "clean" channel.
Also, Shuguang tubes sound great in it and are very inexpensive. You
really have not heard the amp until you do this - no kidding. Makes
all the clean to moderately distorted tones improve dramatically. The
pot and jack cleaning should be thrown in for the normal bench fee.

Thorny

Post by Joe P.
Hi folks,
I own a Peavey 5150 EVH amp head, an early model purchased way back in
1991 or 1992.
The amp suffers from a couple noisy pots.
Can I apply some type of contact cleaner to the potentiometers to
eliminate the noise (which will allow me to avoid having to remove
them from the PCB)?
Or are these potentiometers sealed (thus derailing my plan to apply a
fix without having to remove/replace them)?
Thanks--
Joe