Electrical contact cleaner

I rarely use any, as I prefer to just manipulate my knobs and switches until crackle goes away. However, I did use WD40 contact cleaner on one guitar a few months ago. Seemed to work ok

WD40 Contact Cleaner

Okay, here’s my follow up

The other contact cleaner brands that I have are Rotanium and Sprayon. Both work well on pots. I bought the Deoxit to use for cleaning tube sockets as it doesn’t leave any film that could arc. I paid 19.99 for the Deoxit a few years ago.

If you are just cleaning switches and pots, the stuff you bought should be fine.

I've done a bit of price checking and the Deoxit is 35.00, whether you buy it from Long & McQuade or from Amazon. The WD40 Contact Cleaner is 50.39 from Amazon. I'm glad I found a less expensive alternative.

I wanted to veer slightly off-topic for a moment......When I was doing some research before I figured out what to buy, I ran across one of the products, I think it was lower grade alcohol, that wasn't a recommended contact cleaner because it yellow's plastic. I wonder if it might be an effective way to age white pickguards and knobs. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled topic.......

The aged looking pickguards and knobs are actually molded in that colour. The only reason the old ones yellowed was that they didn’t have UV stabilizers in them.  I’d be worried about destroying the plastic with chemicals as they may melt the plastic or make it brittle.

I hear what you're saying, and some of the products discussed said or implied that the plastic might be distorted or damaged. The only comment on just yellowing plastics was made about lower grades of isopropinol. Relatively pure isopropinol (99 % or better) is considered an acceptable contact cleaner, but the less grades, such as rubbing alcohol @ 60%, are generally to be avoided, not only because the efficacy is lower, but also, yellowed plastics is an issue.

You started the thread--you can steer it wherever you'd like.

I find pots, as a rule, aren't as problematic....If they have a dead spot, there's probably a setting where they'll pass a signal, until there's an opportunity to deal with them further. However, pickup switches can be a real pain in the ass. I used my shorty Tele bass at the jam last week, and I generally play it in the #5 neck position so it's more mellow sounding when I'm with acoustic players. But, the #5 switch position was temperamental and would suddenly go dead in mid-song, so I was having to play in the #4 position (neck and middle). It doesn't quack exactly, but it's brighter sounding than I want for that application. You can flick the switch back and forth rapidly as many times as you want, but it's still not reliable.....It needs spraying with some contact cleaner.

Pots on hollow body guitars tend to get dirty quicker as they are open to the elements through the "f" holes. My ES137 is a pain to clean as I'm afraid to get the cleaner on the nitro surface.

I've found that too actually.  The pots on my solidify guitars never really get scratchy

I just read a thread over on TDPRI about Deoxit, and there was a bit of discussion about other contact cleaners. One thing that was mentioned is that there are two varieties of the WD-40 contact cleaner....Apparently one is designed for most pots, switches, etc and is quite universal. The other WD-40 contact cleaner is a product that's targeted at slide controls. The slider stuff has a lubricant built in to mechanically loosen up sticky sliders....but....The lubricant has a deleterious affect on sealed potentiometers, and there apparently are a few used in certain guitar lines, and that WD-40 Slider product will kill those pots. So, it's worth checking which one you're getting if you decide to use that brand.

I just got an email notice from Canadian Tire that the contact cleaner I ordered from them online is no longer available and they've cancelled the order. This is the first time I'd used Canadian Tire's online sales department, and it'll be the last. Very disappointed that it took them two weeks to even let me know that they were cancelling the order and it'll be the end of trying to buy stuff from them online.

I guess my next stop will be Home Despot. I noticed after I'd placed the Canadian Tire order that Home Depot carries stuff like that. Not my favourite place to shop, but I need to get moving on this so I can clean the pickup switch in my Tele bass before the next acoustic jam on Tuesday.

...I was thinking store pickup from a home depot that had it in stock- or any auto parts store