need some guitar electronics repair advice

[gr8fuldodd]

My pop has had a reoccurring problem w/ his '82 Ibanez Blazer (strat) (which I like a lot by the way)

it's got a 5-way switch and most of them don't work

the upper position (neck pu) works the best, but shorts out a lot to

it makes a scratchy annoying noise and cuts out

spraying some contact cleaner into it (w/out opening it up) makes it work for a little while, but then it goes back to the problem it had

 

a long time ago, he took paid for repairs

the guy didn't really do anything though (I was a kid and don't know what was said/done)

 

so I opened it up to take a look

I don't see any loose connections

and I can't tell it the switch is dirty by just looking at it

I'm going to clean off the switch and see if that works

 

but I'm a novice with this stuff

how do I know if it's a problem with the switch or somewhere else?

advice????

[wagdog]

 

My pop has had a reoccurring problem w/ his '82 Ibanez Blazer (strat) (which I like a lot by the way) it's got a 5-way switch and most of them don't work the upper position (neck pu) works the best, but shorts out a lot to it makes a scratchy annoying noise and cuts out spraying some contact cleaner into it (w/out opening it up) makes it work for a little while, but then it goes back to the problem it had

 

 

The fact that it gets better when sprayed with contact cleaner, then worse over time indicates to me that it's a faulty switch. You probably can't see the problem, so don't feel bad that it isn't jumping out at you.

 

I would change the switch. I like the megaswitches from stewmac.com:

 

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Components:_Switches_and_knobs/3/Megaswitches.html

 

If the body is similar to a strat, that will probably fit.