[NorthCapNerd]

Thanks for all the advice so far.

Tying the negative feedback circuit to ground helped immensely. Volume goes all the way to zero and tone has a more natural effect.

DeoxIT F5 arrived and I sprayed out the volume and tone controls as well.

Volume would now drive me out of the room if I let it, but I don't want to stress the speaker any more than necessary for now.

Here are my two speakers. The first one (less torn) is the one in now, and the second one (more torn - patch attempted by previous owner) is the one I'm going to experiment re-coning with. If I get good results. I'll swap them and do the other. Unless consensus is that a patch would do fine for the first one (less torn)?

If I wanted to use the push buttons, should I spray them with F5 to work them out, or just go for it? and is there any part of the tuning circuit that would benefit from F5? it scratches as I switch but once I change it, things work fine. All I see to spray are the four ball bearings that help the selector plate rotate.