Crackling and Cutting out Volume pot on my CV Telecaster

[michaelocean]

Hello and thanks to all the experienced Telectricians out there! Dang my Volume is just non stop crackle, fade and disappear. I have sprayed a bunch of contact cleaner in there and wiggled and giggled and spun that knob all about... but the problem persists. I am not experienced with the electronics side of things. In fact I have mostly been an acoustic player. I play so much acoustically that I have played my Tele mostly unplugged so far and just accepted this crackle thing as normal when I remember that this is supposed to be plugged into my amp. But lately i've been devoting more attention to developing as an electric guitarist as well... and that dang crackle and drop out thing has finally become an outright nuisance. I'm wondering if I've had some sort of issue with this since purchase about a 16 months ago and have just downplayed it because I'm mostly on the acoustics and my partscaster jazz bass from my youth has always also been crackley crispy. Today I dusted off my L6 and she definitely doesn't sound like this!

-How do I know if the pot is truly toast?
-Why are the CV pots so small, and if I change the volume pot, what is a honest, worthwhile affordable upgrade?
-Is it ok to replace / upgrade just the one pot?
-I have tons of experience with tools and luthierie, but no experience with electronics and no soldering equipment. Should I just jump in, invest a bit, do a bit of deep breathing and relax into figuring out this soldering pots thing?
-Is there any other possible quick fix? (dang, I wasn't looking for another instrument project... I just want to demystify the amp experience and make headway with the music at the moment. But if a beginner with lots of other experience can sort this out in a day,, I guess i need to learn this stuff sooner or later.)
-what's your recommended tutorial for replacing a Telecaster pot?

Thanks to the Tele Hive Mind

 

[fretknot]

Try cleaning it first or look for other possibilities where a connection is loose. The cause may be a cold solder joint, or a defective pot.

If the pot is the problem, then I would replace it with a standard CTS 250K audio taper pot, usually available in most guitar shops for $5-6.00. You could get a Bourns pot if low friction is desired. I usually replace dime-sized pots on anything I intend to keep.

 

[badscrew_projects]

Pots are cheap, if yours doesn’t work well then just replace it. I like Bourns personally, and they last forever.

 

[1 21 gigawatts]

I'd replace both while you are in there, since the originals are cheap dime sizes pots.

 

[JRapp]

To upgrade the pots to CTS/etc, you will need to enlarge the holes in the control plate. A tapered reamer works for this. In fact, replace all the cheapo components in there with CTS/CRL/etc and it will be trouble-free for years.

 

[michaelocean]

Thanks Meistros!
Ok, can you recommend any definitive links, videos, tutorials to get me started with learning how to do this? I’m looking up CTS’s and CRL’s right now if that’s any indication on what I know (or rather don’t know) about soldering pots etc!!

 

[clex___ace]

I just had the same problem on mine. I first replaced just the volume pot, but had so much fun learning to solder that I went on to replace all the electronics+wiring aside from the pickups. I did notice that the CV knobs didn't fit on the replacement pot post, so you might have to buy new knobs.