Guitar Maintenance

[Monkus]

I've decided to learn how to fix/maintain my own guitars because techs are so phreaking unreliable and the gurus of the Fret guided me to do it on my own. Loaded up on contact cleaner, soldering station, solder, solder remover tool, assorted screwdrivers, feeler gauge, cloths and hex wrenches yesterday.

My PRS was humming intermittently over the past few weeks and progressively getting worse. I took out the input jack after much research, checked the connections, sprayed contact cleaner and screwed it back in. No hum. Singing like she's on stage in the opera hall. What I don't understand is why? Why would a simple contact spraying work?

[otaypanky]

Oxidation can be the cause. I had that occur with an old ES-335. And I had one guitar that was also prone to going dead on the neck setting of the 3 way p/u selector switch. A quick spray of contact leaner would cure it for a long time.
The best cleaner is a product called Deoxit, pricey, but quite different from the contact cleaner/lubricant found at Radio Shack. One other item that's good to have in your kit is desoldering braid. It will allow you to wick solder from the back of pots and from places you can't always get to with your desolder pump.

[mapka]

you can get DeoxIT at www.parts-express.com they did some work for me and were good to deal with.

[deeaa]

Oxidation, yeah...happens with all hardware with bare metal contacts, like jacks...many a piece of older gear can be miraculously rejuvenated with just some deoxit indeed...

[Monkus]

Useful to know...thank you.... Otay...i'll get the desolder braid, thanks for the tip!

:goodjob

[gordy_sg_no1]

yeah i would invest in some socketry aswell. a socket set is invaluable for any electrical work and its nicer on the guitars finish than a shifter spanner. i also would recomend a multimeter and a decent pair of technicians snips