TS-808 problems

does it do that with the battery in or with a power adapter or both?  If your using a power adapter from, say, Radio Shack, then you are getting 60 cycle hum introduced.  Also, is your power supply powering other effects?  If your using a power adapter, what brand?

Hopefully someone didn't plug it into a adapter running more juice than these can handle.  I've seen that a million times. 

   Also, has it ever been out in the rain or dropped in water that you know of?

  The static when turning the knobs could be caused by large amounts of dirt in the pots and that's easy to fix.  Just replace the pots which cost a few bucks. 

   Sorry for all the questions, it just helps me get a better idea of the problem.  Any chance you could send me a few DETAILED photos of the guts so I can get a look?  Could be something as simple as a component or wire coming out of PCB-and that's pretty common if someone has opened the casing up and moved the PCB around a bit.

hey guys thanks for the feedback. its definately a crackly squeal. i dont use a battery, i have a voodoo labs pedal power 2 plus. and it powers 8 pedals altogether. i'm afraid to do much major dis assembly to it, lol. afrad i'll mess it up worse i guess.  it's probably beed dropped on the floor a few times in its life, not since i've had it though, lol.  if it did come down to having to replace a pot, do the new ones sound EXACTLY like the old ones?  sounds like the simplest thing to attempt is spray that deoxit stuff in there and see what that does. it is dirty on the outside, which makes me suspect its that way on inside too. anything else i can add just let me know.

Id suggest.... putting the original in a box for safe keeping.. use a reissue , they are great and cheap..  Nobody will know the difference if u take a chain and screw driver to the outside... Joe B

Ditto on what Joe said.  I would NEVER tour/gig with that.  Some jerk with sticky fingers will relieve you of it quick. 

   Did you look at the PCB or try the Deoxit yet ?

The only thing different about them are the PCB board. Maxon no longer makes the boards for Ibanez so they make their own (or whoever they contract to put their name on it does)

   Otherwise, they sound identical to the original.  I had the chance to A/B the pair a few months back and I could not tell any tonal difference. 

   The TS-9 and 808 are nearly identical anyways, the TS-9's just have different component values in a few spots for more gain and increased bass response (to my ears).  Thats about it.  You can change a TS9 to 808 specs easily for about a $1 in parts and a lot less than buying the 808. 

  Just my .02

Now that really sounds like a bad pot.   It happens.  As long as the value of the pot does not change, the tone will not be affected.  It's just an adjustable resister.

If you have a multi meter you have to take the off the wires on the pot, after marking the wires carefully so you know which lug they re-attach to. Don't forget to mark them.
Then turn the pot all the way to the right(clockwise) and with your meter take an OHM reading on both outside lugs of the pot. That will give you the pot's rating total ohm value.
If you want to see if the taper is still good then connect one lead to any outside lug and one to the middle lug and turn the shaft slowly from one end to the other, watch the meter to see of the numbers change smoothly without jumping or hitting dead spots where there's no reading at all. You can do this reading from the back without removing the pot, but don't hold the pot or touch the probes to your hand or the casing while you do it because that will give you a false reading. The tone pot's value in the original ts-808 and ts-9 should be 20K. I think the reissues use those values as well. The pot should read very close to 20K but if it's drifted a bit it might read as low as 18K which still wouldn't be a problem. The wipers inside those pots which controls the resistance as the shaft is turned is 1/32" or even less so it can wear and drift over time.
As far as actual sound, pots can affect tone somewhat. If you buy another I'd replace it with an "Alpha" pot. They're sturdy, have a smooth taper and will keep your pedal's tone perfectly intact. They're very easy to find as well. They also make pots for other companies so it's not hard to pick one up. As far as the pot value, yes, an Alpa pot has a stamp on it, either on the back where the alpha stamp is or when you look at the face of the pot(shaft side) you'll see a little white stamp on the brown plastic that says 20K at the top of the pot indicating it's rated value.

One more thing, when cleaning your pot use deoxit, not wd-40 or some other kind of oil based crap. The wipers in these pots, unless custom made like the RS carbon super pots, are silkscreened and can be dissolved or gummed up with flat spots if using the wrong type of contact cleaner.
wd-40 is great for door hinges and squeaky car parts but don't use it on electrical components. I've had to re-clean number of pedals and amps when the owners sprayed that stuff in because a friend told them it works.
When spraying the deoxit into the opening on the back(side) of the pot where the lugs are just spray a tiny bit in quickly and then turn the pot back and forth a number of times. That should clean and lubricate it properly. Too much and you'll have small lake of cleaner in there that will take way too long to dry and will attract more dirt.

Your pedal has diodes and transistors that can be sensitive to shock and from what you describe it sounds a bit like a faulty diode but it could be the pot.
Good luck with it.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make it as easy to follow as possible.