Puzzling pot distortion

Anders Brundell · Post by **Anders Brundell** » 8 Jun 2004 10:51 am

I have a Clarostat (I couldn’t find any Allen-Bradley) logarithmic pot that distorts only when there’s a signal thru it. I can run it from zero to full throttle without a scratch if I don’t pick any strings, but when I pick it scratches badly when I move the volume pedal. The pot is just a few months old and didn’t scratch at all when it was new.
I can’t remember any trouble like this with the AB pots I used earlier.
Any ideas what to do?

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 8 Jun 2004 12:02 pm

That pot needs cleaning, a solder joint is bad,a jack needs cleaning or the plug has a bad connection.
Try different cables to eliminate them from the picture.
Wiggle the plugs in the jacks to see if that will make noise. If that doesn't cause the noise, you can resolder the wires from the pot to the jacks and clean the pot (unless it is a sealed pot).
Sometimes new pots are scratchy until they get rotated a few times.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Jun 2004 2:09 pm

Sometimes the pot is OK, but the moving pedal touches a wire and makes a noise.

Anders Brundell · Post by **Anders Brundell** » 10 Jun 2004 12:08 pm

Thanks a lot for all advices!
Changing to a new pot fixed it. Surprisingly short life span of the previous one means time for a Hilton pedal, I guess, since good pots are history by now.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 10 Jun 2004 12:15 pm

I have had good luck with the Canadian pots recommended by Karlis in this thread: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum11/HTML/004699.html
and for me the Goodrich pot pedal sounds better than the Hilton pedal (and much cheaper too).

Anders Brundell · Post by **Anders Brundell** » 11 Jun 2004 2:05 am

I thought that Hilton's pedal didn't color the sound at all. What's the Hilton owners experiences? Now I'm getting confused.