It's very important to ensure that your guitar effects pedals are always clean. If you don't clean your pedals properly, you'll always experience some problems like crackling pots and a scratchy noise. These problems are mainly caused by dirt or dust inside the pot. This article mainly looks at how to clean guitar effects pedals the right way.  

How To Clean Guitar Effects Pedals The Right Way

 

1. Using A Spray Cleaner Or Lubricant

It is worth noting down that you should never use personal or household lubricants to clean guitar pedals. You need a spray cleaner that has been formulated for the purpose of cleaning switches and potentiometers. The best lubricant to use is the Caig DeoxIT. The cleaner should be applied at the sides of the pot and the pot should always be rotated to ensure that it is thoroughly cleaned. The excess cleaner should also be removed. This routine is very important and will definitely help reduce the scratchy noise. The DeOxit 100 lubricant should also be used sparingly because it's quite expensive. The lubricant can also be needled into the pots. It is also very important to coat the pots with the DeOxit 100 lubricant to enhance conductivity and to also prevent oxidation in future. The barrels and tip should also be treated and cleaned in the same way. This lubricant is very effective and cleans away corrosion at ease.  

2. Dish Soap And A Cloth

You can also use Q-Tip or a rag that is moistened with dish soap to clean grime and also dirt. Some people also use water and vinegar to clean guitar effect pedals. If you're out of vinegar, you can also use Isopropyl alcohol to clean them. When cleaning the pedals, you should try as much as possible to avoid rubbing the graphics and printing with the solvents. Always let the water and dish soap to take all or most of the grime off. It is also very important to ensure that your jacks are always clean at all times. For the jacks to work properly, they should always have a proper tension at all times and should also be well cleaned. You can use a contact cleaner and a Q-tip to clean the jack connections. You can also bend the tip contact inwards to re-tension the jacks. The DeOxit 100 is available as spray cans or as needle end bottles. This is clearly the best lubricant that you should consider using when cleaning your guitar effect pedals. When spraying, you can spray the pots as you rotate them and then let them dry for a few hours. The DeOxit 100 fader lube is also used to clean the pedals and helps in protecting knobs, moving parts and also sliders. When cleaning the power tube sockets, you can use large brushes, but always pay close attention to the deadly voltage. You can easily get high-quality proxy brushes at Walmart and at affordable prices. Always use DeOxit to clean your pedals and then condition with DeOxit gold. This is the most efficient way to clean your pedals.  

Final Thoughts ... 

If you use the different methods clearly described above, then you should have very little problems when cleaning your guitar effects pedals. All these basic procedures are simple and you can easily do them without requiring any assistance.    

Your Turn to Sound Off!

How often do you clean your effects pedals?

Let us know in the comment section below!

 

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