Crossover reconditioning?

[KingBollock]

I recently bought an old Peavey 410TX but it has a problem (other than the ugly flames someone has painted on the front...). At certain frequencies, it farts. I'm fairly certain that it's the L-Pad causing the problem, when I turn the knob on the back it sounds like opening a rusty gate.
So I'm going to have a go at reconditioning it myself. I do have some experience with electronics and have relevant testing equipment. But I thought I would ask here if anyone else has had any experience with the insides of this cab, or any cab likely to have the same insides, as it's too late in the evening to start now (I've never had a complaint form the neighbours but I don't want to upset them). I'm hoping that just cleaning stuff up will do the trick, but if it doesn't are the parts that might need replacing readily available? Such as the rusty sounding L-Pad. I am assuming that it's just a large version of a standard pot, so I can open up the pot it's self to clean the inside of it.
I'd rather not be told just to ditch it and get something better... If the worst comes to the worst I shall just bypass the crossover and not bother with the tweeter, which would be a shame.

Thanks for reading and for any help you can offer.

Edited July 5, 2011 by KingBollock

[escholl]

[quote name='KingBollock' post='1294023' date='Jul 5 2011, 09:54 PM']I recently bought an old Peavey 410TX but it has a problem (other than the ugly flames someone has painted on the front...). At certain frequencies, it farts. I'm fairly certain that it's the L-Pad causing the problem, when I turn the knob on the back it sounds like opening a rusty gate.
So I'm going to have a go at reconditioning it myself. I do have some experience with electronics and have relevant testing equipment. But I thought I would ask here if anyone else has had any experience with the insides of this cab, or any cab likely to have the same insides, as it's too late in the evening to start now (I've never had a complaint form the neighbours but I don't want to upset them). I'm hoping that just cleaning stuff up will do the trick, but if it doesn't are the parts that might need replacing readily available? Such as the rusty sounding L-Pad. I am assuming that it's just a large version of a standard pot, so I can open up the pot it's self to clean the inside of it.
I'd rather not be told just to ditch it and get something better... If the worst comes to the worst I shall just bypass the crossover and not bother with the tweeter, which would be a shame.

Thanks for reading and for any help you can offer.[/quote]
Those pots are sometimes a little different to normal pots, as they may have to dissipate a 1 or 2 watts (normal pots are rated at 0.125 or 0.25 watts). As a result they might look like a tight bunch of coiled resistive wire with a slider that moves over them as the pot rotates. However, they should clean up as well as any normal pot, some Caig Deoxit and a wire brush should do the trick here.

There's also the chance that they'll just look like normal potentiometers inside but bigger, I suppose it will depend on the age of the cab, I'm not familiar with this one. Should be a fairly straightforward task however, and if there's no damage to the tracks inside then I can't imagine you'd need to buy new ones, current ones should be fine once cleaned.

[icastle]

If you have no joy cleaning the pot then Peavey have a UK service centre that should be able to identify and provide a replacement part, I've used them before and they're dead helpfull.

Service Dpt - Peavey Electronics
Great Folds Road
Oakley Hay
Corby
Northamptonshire
NN18 9ET
Phone: 01536 461234

e-mail: [email protected]

[KingBollock]

Thanks for the advice! I have spent most of today failing to replicate the fault. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing... Still, I shall go ahead and give it all a clean out anyway. I have a little more confidence thanks to your comments.