sound cutting out, knobs

So the sound cuts out when/if you accidentally bump the tone knob.
Just to be sure, I pulled out the input jack, cleaned off the contacts, and checked the control cavity, and all the wires seem to be solidly attached.

So is it just a bad tone pot?

If I unsolder, pop in a new pot, and then solder up exactly as before, will it solve the problem?

did you clean the contacts on the tone pot itself?

gittarasaurus wrote:did you clean the contacts on the tone pot itself?

No.
I've heard you do that by spraying compressed air.

I don't have any cans of that. No room to get any, what with all the cans of whoop-ass I've got sitting around here waiting to be opened.

if you are lucky, compressed air will do it, but more likely you need something to clean dirt or corrosion off the contacts. i use some stuff i got at radio shack. like this:
cleaner
just spray inside the pot where the contacts are, and then spin the knob from end to end a bunch of times, to clean the contact surfaces. it will dry in about a minute or less. then plug it in and check to see if that worked. maybe need to do it a couple times if the pot is really dirty inside. this will fix it most of the time and is much easier than replacing the whole thing.