I just purchased a used ‘65 TRRI and I’m in love with it, obviously being used I’m sure it has some dust around the pots. The volume on the vibrato channel scratches like a mother effer around 4-5. Not that it needs to get much louder than that, but I’m worried to spray deoxit into the face/behind the knobs… I’ve seen tutorials on taking the entire head out but I’m just not comfortable or confident enough to do that considering I’ve wanted this amp for decades and finally got one, just for me to break it. Is deoxit ok to use through the front of a twin if I remove the knobs?

DeathTide wrote:

Do not spray from the front, only into the tiny gap on the pot. Also do not use regular detox-it, use fader lube. It really just needs a few drops, or a 1/4 second spritz. But only into the hole, found on the pot's body. The noise comes from crap on the wiper which is inside the body, so nothing you can do to the shaft will help.

It's very easy to remove the chassis. It's four bolts and some balancing. Hold it by the transformers. You can remove the tubes if you'd like, but I don't do that. You can do it, besides don't you want to look at your amp? Have a appropriate surface to put it the chassis on, so it's not stressed and the tubes are clear. Sadly it only slides backwards, or else you could scoot it forward and spray without completely removing the chassis.

I appreciate it brother, you’re right I would like to get familiar with my amp. Just don’t want to break it and/or die while doing so I’ll look up some tutorials and eventually dive in. I turned the knobs back and forth on standby and it seemed to have fixed the issue for now but I know it still needs cleaned with fader. Thanks again brother

You can do it!

If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

Jojobaplant wrote:

I had a scratchy volume knob on my Bandmaster normal channel. With the power off turning the knob from 0 to 10 a few times fast will ease the worst. But you need electrical contact cleaner and you will indeed need to take the amp out of the box to fix it definitively. When I re-tolexed the head I did that and it works like a charm now.

Note: it may sound silly, but wash your hands thoroughly after you worked with the electrical contact cleaner. It's nasty stuff.

Thank you all for the input, does anyone also happen to know a safe way to clean the back of the cabinet out? Cobwebs everywhere that I didn’t notice before. I’m worried to touch the tubes would it be ok to just wipe them with rubbing alcohol after a quick shop-vac and wipe down around the cabinet? Should I just use compressed air to blow everything out or am I ok to use some soap and little moisture to get rid of dirt/dust(?)

Oil from your fingers can act as a solvent and pull the inked lettering off of tube glass. I wear latex or nitrile gloves when handling tubes.
Do not use any kind of solvent, including water, on tubes. Just blow any dust off with canned air.

Jojobaplant wrote:

AndrewTesta wrote:

Thank you all for the input, does anyone also happen to know a safe way to clean the back of the cabinet out? Cobwebs everywhere that I didn’t notice before. I’m worried to touch the tubes would it be ok to just wipe them with rubbing alcohol after a quick shop-vac and wipe down around the cabinet? Should I just use compressed air to blow everything out or am I ok to use some soap and little moisture to get rid of dirt/dust(?)

Use some compressed air to blow out all dust and cobwebs. But do it outside - you will be grateful you did ;) Or grab a dust cloth and really, REALLY carefully wipe the dust off. Just so you know: amps, even if they are disconnected from a power socket still have enough voltage in them to kill you. Just be super careful and don't touch anything apart from the tubes if you do it by hand.

For any dust gathered far away enough from the tubes (which are not made of sugar - they can stand a bit, but better to be safe than sorry); on the bottom of the box, you can carefully use a vacuum as long as you don't touch the tubes. As for my previous suggestion, don't drown the pots in the electronic conduction cleaner, just a teeny tiny bit is enough. And make sure you wash your hands afterwards; going into the sun with that stuff on your fingers can and will have unexpected results. Also, if you keep fish, like I do, and you go into the water with these contaminated hands/fingers, your fish will die.

To counteract all that grim warning and to balance it all out - it's been a wonderfully sunny day here in Dublin. Nearly un-Irish for the time of year.

I’m glad the weather is treating you well today brother (keyword today) thanks for all of your input it will definitely help me sleep better tonight. All the best from Ohio

chiba wrote:

Andrew ... yeah man, you may be overthinking it a little bit.

If you don't open the amp or pull the amp out from the box, there's very little you can do to hurt yourself using just your hands and a rag. To access any possibility of electric shock from OUTSIDE a properly functioning amp, you'd probably need to start jamming probes into the tube sockets' pin holes.

YES, amplifiers can store lethal amounts of electricity.

BUT if you're not monkeying around INSIDE the amp, your chances of being electrocuted are beyond slim, bordering on none.

Unplug the amp, wet a rag, squeeze it out really good, and just wipe out the inside of your amp. Get all the dust and cobwebs out, wipe every visible surface. Then use a dry rag - lint-free if you have one - and wipe everything again. Use the dry rag to gently grip each tube and make sure it's solidly in its socket, just in case you loosened any of them.

Washing your hands first (and after) isn't a bad idea, but the amount of skin oils you'd have to leave behind to greatly affect the life and/or performance of your tubes is enough that you'd be able to visibly see it, which would I'm sure compel you to wipe it off.

It's not rocket science, and people way dumber than you have done way stupider things with/to their amps and lived

I appreciate it brother, just so I’m clear you’re saying it’s ok to wipe out the back of the amp? It’s dust and cobwebs galore. Obviously being mindful around the tubes and chassis but below that I’m safe to wipe around with a rag or static free cloth to clean it?

Ha! Yes of course. I assumed the amp would be unplugged. Before you pull the chassis, turn it on and play some chords, then turn off the power and leave the standby switch on. Unplug. Shortly thereafter the filter caps will be drained and there will be no shock hazard.

I'd use compressed air for the circuit board, a dry rag for everywhere else.

Daniel Deathtide