Scratchy Input Gain trim pot

Been having some weird things happen recently... input gain trim pot is scratchy and one side sometimes spontaneously cuts out. I have some DeOxit but probably want to open the box up to apply directly. I also unfortunately yanked the headphone cable hard enough to bend the plug a little bit. The sound doesn't cut in and out when I wiggle it but sometimes one of the channels is gone anyway until I rotate the input trimmer (which isn't all that easy from the front side).

Any similar complaints? Anyone replaced it? Anyone fixed or replaced the headphone jack or board? Does any place sell spare parts?

thx,

DL

Same problem with a gen 1 device myself (Force headphone and master pots)

Using the cue mix knob up front since I don’t run a cue bus, and I leave the master where it is once it settles down. Usually I’m hooked into a mixer though. Have procrastinated cleaning them. Never checked to see if USB audio is unaffected in case a pit dies on me.

Only my Force master vol knobs is scratchy, but it doesn't get recorded, but it's still a pain to deal with. One on the ins or outs is louder than the other, but luckily the Force has 2 input gain knobs & I can adjust it. I got it used & don't if came like that or the old owner messed it up.

Have anyone ever fixed the scratchy pots on their MPC/Force?

I'm probably going to give it a go (watched a disassembling video and the pot is on a removable PC board with the jacks) but I have a performance coming up next weekend so not going to chance it. So far if I rotate it all the way and back a couple times it seems to be OK for a little while.

I should have mentioned, this is on an MPC One.

The pot may have a solder joint issue. It might just need to be soldered back to the board again, though just taking a guess. If you (or someone you know) is decent with a soldering iron it might be worth a check.

NearTao wrote:The pot may have a solder joint issue. It might just need to be soldered back to the board again, though just taking a guess. If you (or someone you know) is decent with a soldering iron it might be worth a check.

I'm not opening this box up & messing with it's guts unless I have a spare one. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

NearTao wrote:The pot may have a solder joint issue. It might just need to be soldered back to the board again, though just taking a guess.

Maybe, has never been the case for me though usually a zap of spray will fix a scratchy pot witn dropout issues. Just like if a car won’t turn over you usually check the battery first.

JethroJethro wrote:Maybe, has never been the case for me though usually a zap of spray will fix a scratchy pot witn dropout issues.

Have you tried that with the Force/MPC & has it worked?

Well here's an interesting update. Up to now I've mostly been using the MPC as a headphone amp for my guitar pedalboard. I get that all going on with loops and then I bring in the synths and drums. So I just noticed tonight that the internal sounds are also cutting out on the left channel which would really strongly suggest that it has nothing at all to do with the input board or trim pot. Again, cranking the input gain and the guitar signal causes a "breakthrough" in the sound and it works much better after that - for awhile. Since I can't deal with this at the moment I got my UMC404, which fortunately I already had, plugged it in and everything is much better.

So I'm guessing it's some issue with a cable going to the headphone board, possibly the jack itself but it does not do anything when I wiggle the plug. Maybe a corroded board interconnect. It also manifested through the stereo outs. Be nice to have a schematic. Alas!