volume pot has too much resistance/torque

[Jack_TriPpEr]

The amount of resistance when spinning the shaft of the volume pot on one of my friend's guitars is pretty high. So it's not conducive to doing volume swells with his pinky. Can I do anything to make it spin more freely/loosely? Like apply WD-40? Or Electrical Contact cleaner? Etc.

The guitar is a late 1980's Charvel super-strat.

Thanks

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: volume pot has too much resistance/torque

Try dripping contact cleaner down the shaft then rotate back and forth. See if that loosens it up

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: volume pot has too much resistance/torque

A lot of potentiometers will tighten up like that if the mounting nut is too tight. This is often reversible, so try removing the knob and loosening the nut a little bit to see if it loosens the shaft as well.

 

[wolf5150]

Re: volume pot has too much resistance/torque

Get some electronic spray vaseline made by Kontact.
Contact cleaner won't do it and too much will damage the pot.

Spray vaseline does exactly what you want.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: volume pot has too much resistance/torque

I'm sure you've already checked the very obvious things, but I'll just mention that I have picked up a few very expensive new guitars that had volume or tone knobs rubbing on their pickguards.

 

[jball85]

Re: volume pot has too much resistance/torque

+1 on the knobs rubbing on the pickguards. If nothing works replace with a bourns or cts pot.