Soldering is hell

[deeaa]

I really dislike soldering.

I mean, it's fine for a few leads and whatever, but when you need a dozen solders and especially on the backs of those damned pots and such, it always becomes a real pain in the a.

I'm installing a single humbucker, a DiMarzio 36th anniversary, in a guitar, and since I had a push-pull pot at hand, I wanted to wire it so that I can switch between series and parallel wiring. Don't know if it gives any meaningful sounds but wth.

Now I also wanted to add an EMG PA-2 preamp to the mix...and that gave me a bit of a headache...easy enough to find a schematic for the push pull switch and also how to add the PA 2 to a passive two pickup system, but combination of the two was pretty hard to understand for me. Probably easy peasy for anyone who understands electronics well but took me a good two hours to wire this concoction together.

We'll see tomorrow whether it turned out right, when I install it and the pickup...

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[rrobbone]

Solding is my least favorite thing involved in modding.

That reminds me: I need to make myself a solder monster someday.

[uwmcscott]

Agreed - I'm horrible at soldering. One of those "when I have some spare time I'm just going to sit down and practice" things that never happens. So it's basically my own fault, but I can still gripe about it a little.

[Mossman]

I love building guitars, but my LEAST favorite part is the soldering, and I hate soldering push/pull pots most of all! So much so, when I sold my 3100MCC, I just let them have the upgraded pickups rather than going through the hassle of wiring the stock pickups back to the push/pulls again. Sure, I never got the money back for the pickups, but my time isn't exactly worthless, either.

I actually prefer soldering chips onto circuit boards over soldering those pots. At least you don't need three hands for that.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I actually prefer soldering chips onto circuit boards over soldering those pots. At least you don't need three hands for that.

That's exactly it - soldering is a 3-handed job. It's awkward, but I tend to use one of those alligator-clip hands bendy arms devices, whatever they're called to hold things together while I use the iron in one hand and the solder in the other. It also helps to pretty much tin everything before you start the actual soldering.

[nomadh]

Back of Pots are the worst. Its both a big piece of metal so it needs lots of heat but its also a delicate resistor. I wa always told to never use the big soldering guns as they heat everything up to much and cook everything. Never use anything but the tiny 25 watt pencil. Well bullcrap! It takes 20 min with a small iron and by then the pot is destroyed. A powerful gun can get you in and out sometimes in 10 seconds. I have a nice variable weller and it cant even solder my speaker wire to a 1/4 jack. I actually had a class in soldering but I'm still not very good.

[dearlpitts]

Yep pita

[mozz]

Ah, come on. I love soldering. Buy a good quality iron and use real 63/37 lead solder. Like anything, you need good tools to do a good job. I always tin the wire before looping it through a terminal. Make a great physical connection, i was taught the unit should work even before you solder the connections. To solder on the back of pots, it has to be clean, wire brush clean. Temp has to be hot enough. Good solder, no flux needed. Get in get out. If it doesn't flow you did something wrong.

[Rollin Hand]

I have the devil's own time with soldering, but I have learned a couple of things:

1. Tin the wire.
2. Flux and tun the back of the pot.
3. Multiple wires soldered to the same point? Solder them together, then solder to the back of the pot.
4. If you have a two stage soldering gun, it helps. 140 watts melts the solder fast.
5. You are going to mess up. Accept it, and try anyway.

My solderin issues are componded by the fact that I seem to have a mental block with wiring. I am trying to get past that too.

[honyock]

I find it to be a fun activity when using good equipment, and one of the most frustrating tasks when using cheap equipment.

I got quite good at replacing capacitors on PC monitors when LCD displays started popping up almost free at Goodwill. A couple bucks at an electronic parts store and I could turn a nice profit on Craigslist.

[Mossman]

I actually prefer soldering chips onto circuit boards over soldering those pots. At least you don't need three hands for that.

That's exactly it - soldering is a 3-handed job. It's awkward, but I tend to use one of those alligator-clip hands bendy arms devices, whatever they're called to hold things together while I use the iron in one hand and the solder in the other. It also helps to pretty much tin everything before you start the actual soldering.

Yeah, I have the helping hands (and sometimes I actually use them!), and I tin the wires and do everything you're supposed to, but I still feel awkward, and I still do an unsightly job of it... I've gotten better at getting it right the first time, and my connections are solid, but I wouldn't want to be around if somebody decided to take a gander at my work.

Back of Pots are the worst. Its both a big piece of metal so it needs lots of heat but its also a delicate resistor. I wa always told to never use the big soldering guns as they heat everything up to much and cook everything. Never use anything but the tiny 25 watt pencil. Well bullcrap! It takes 20 min with a small iron and by then the pot is destroyed. A powerful gun can get you in and out sometimes in 10 seconds. I have a nice variable weller and it cant even solder my speaker wire to a 1/4 jack. I actually had a class in soldering but I'm still not very good.

I used to struggle with soldering to the back of the pot, and whoever told you to use a low-wattage iron didn't know what they were talking about. All my back-of-pot problems went away when I stopped messing around with 25 and 45 watt irons and got myself a decent soldering station. I usually run about 850° and I haven't burned out a pot yet, but I trashed plenty with the 25 watters.

[deeaa]

See, I have a decent solder gun, and it's like it's always real easy to start with. I prepare the leads and pre-solder them, everything nice. First 4-5 solders go fine.

At that point usually the head needs cleaning up but it's kinda hard without turning it off and filing, so you just kinda scrape it a bit...and it gets progressively worse.

Next, you realize the holes in the pot are far too narrow for your lead, so you have to make new ones. Also you realize some leads need to go through three loops and return to a pot. So you somehow mangle them in place using a magnifying glass to see, and tweezers.

But the solder head, even the smallest tip you have, is so large it's next to impossible to only heat the correct prongs with the holes, and you end up smearing solder between terminals you don't need. Manage to get those off but it's starting to look ugly.

Then you start with the wires that go to the back of the pots and turn the solder gun high up and put a big flat head on, and even then when they finally stick, you're sure it's a cold joint and will snap.

At this point, the heat has transferred via the lead to the previous solder and one of the small connections gets loose.

You solder it with the big head because you're getting pissed off for spending an hour already, and it gets ugly but should work.

Because you have to keep rotating the whole crap and attaching it to the desk somehow or use a third hand, now the twisting and torque is too much and the first pots back ground solders come off.

So you redo those.

Then you realize you made a mistake and have to change the order of wires somehow. Again the lead is too thick and you have to change the head, and it's all fouled up, the tin won't suddenly melt...

Yeah, it ain't fun no more it takes an amazing amount of solder joints to put something like this together. A good two-hour job in the end.

Man I hope it works. If it's not correct I'll just bloody bypass everything and go straight to the jack from the pickup will do it some other day when I've forgotten what hell it is.

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[mozz]

"At that point usually the head needs cleaning up but it's kinda hard without turning it off and filing, so you just kinda scrape it a bit...and it gets progressively worse."

Once you scrape or sand the plating off, you might as well throw the tip away. I only wipe the tip on a wet sponge maybe every 10 connections and it's right before you solder . Those metal scrunge pads are a joke. A decent soldering station goes a long way to making nice connections. I usually run at 650f and crank it up to 850f for pots then hurriedly turn it back down. The tip can not be to small otherwise you have no mass and the temp drops as soon as you touch something. I do have a cheap $30 chinese hakko copy, it works somewhat, tips are junk and temp setting is way off. For real soldering i use my Weller WTCPT with 700-800 degree tips out in the garage or my trusty Weller ESD51 with digital readout on my workbench. I can bet i have a box of 10 soldering irons i never use, and the pair of Weller dual temp guns 100/140 200/250 only get used when i need to solder/unsolder to a amp chassis.

I really believe if all these people having trouble soldering would save up $100 and buy a Weller 95% of your problems would go away.

[mickey]

"At that point usually the head needs cleaning up but it's kinda hard without turning it off and filing, so you just kinda scrape it a bit...and it gets progressively worse."

Once you scrape or sand the plating off, you might as well throw the tip away. I only wipe the tip on a wet sponge maybe every 10 connections and it's right before you solder . Those metal scrunge pads are a joke. A decent soldering station goes a long way to making nice connections. I usually run at 650f and crank it up to 850f for pots then hurriedly turn it back down. The tip can not be to small otherwise you have no mass and the temp drops as soon as you touch something. I do have a cheap $30 chinese hakko copy, it works somewhat, tips are junk and temp setting is way off. For real soldering i use my Weller WTCPT with 700-800 degree tips out in the garage or my trusty Weller ESD51 with digital readout on my workbench. I can bet i have a box of 10 soldering irons i never use, and the pair of Weller dual temp guns 100/140 200/250 only get used when i need to solder/unsolder to a amp chassis.

I really believe if all these people having trouble soldering would save up $100 and buy a Weller 95% of your problems would go away.
71otiYas-gL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

I agree completely. I have 3 Weller soldering stations (of different sizes, 2 fixed & 1 variable temp) and I love soldering.
But then I scratch built my first amp in 3rd grade, short wave radio in 4th grade.
I love soldering.

Soldering is a lot like playing guitar in that it is much easier with good tools & years of practice.

[UrenragK]

Another vote for good kit, right tool for the job!

*Rushes off to buy a proper fret slotting saw instead of trying to find a cheap alternative*

[deeaa]

Yeah, a good kit always helps...the thing is these seem to be pretty expendable. I've ruined a couple just within a year. I had a decent Weller iron, and burned through its own power cord another one just broke; apparently the ceramic stuff inside the heater snapped. Maybe those heads could be better - I never seem to be able to keep them clean no matter how much I rub them to the wet sponge or use flux.

[Partscaster]

I use a Hakko 888D (sounds Finish to me). It goes to 790F, I always use it on high. My work never looks neat like the factory solders. But, I have only had a few cold solders, and I think I only cooked one pot in my 8 years of modding fever. I did have a soldering-pen type tool prior. It was junk for me. I quickly got the Hakko, and now my work looks homespun, but holds up just fine.

[deeaa]

Perhaps a picture of my workbench explains more than words why I hate soldering

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[Rollin Hand]

"At that point usually the head needs cleaning up but it's kinda hard without turning it off and filing, so you just kinda scrape it a bit...and it gets progressively worse."

Once you scrape or sand the plating off, you might as well throw the tip away. I only wipe the tip on a wet sponge maybe every 10 connections and it's right before you solder . Those metal scrunge pads are a joke. A decent soldering station goes a long way to making nice connections. I usually run at 650f and crank it up to 850f for pots then hurriedly turn it back down. The tip can not be to small otherwise you have no mass and the temp drops as soon as you touch something. I do have a cheap $30 chinese hakko copy, it works somewhat, tips are junk and temp setting is way off. For real soldering i use my Weller WTCPT with 700-800 degree tips out in the garage or my trusty Weller ESD51 with digital readout on my workbench. I can bet i have a box of 10 soldering irons i never use, and the pair of Weller dual temp guns 100/140 200/250 only get used when i need to solder/unsolder to a amp chassis.

I really believe if all these people having trouble soldering would save up $100 and buy a Weller 95% of your problems would go away.
71otiYas-gL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

My cheap Amazon soldering station does just fine for light work. But I now know that for the backs of pots and grounds on trem claws to bust out the Weller gun. 140 watts makes fast, effective work. It was my dad's. He used it for fixing TVs and radios for his business, and I never saw him use an iron. He was an artist with that thing.

Of vourse he could also reads schematics like they were....understandable.

[mozz]

That's how a workbench is supposed to look. My Weller's have some type of burnproof cord, Teflon or something.
Rule#4, never solder inside a tube amp chassis while it's plugged in.


"Soldering is a lot like playing guitar in that it is much easier with good tools & years of practice."

I may be able to solder behind my back with my eyes closed , but the star spangled banner on my strat still needs lots of work.

[redman]

I actually prefer soldering chips onto circuit boards over soldering those pots. At least you don't need three hands for that.

I agree Mossman from the mid 70's until the late 80's I made my living as a bench tech and for a few of those years I worked for a large music store called Dunham's Music House . They not only sold music instruments and gear but TV's and stereos as well. We sold several brands of TV's but the Zenith's back then used point to point wiring instead of PC boards and we had what we now call solder monsters then we called them solder jigs and they were a necessity. Pots on guitars also utilize point to point wiring and for me a jig is a necessity for soldering the connections on them.
As far as soldering grounds to the pot housing I scratch the surface a bit then tin it leaving the amount of solder I want on it then I tin the end of the wire and simply heat the solder on the pot until it flows and the wire then bonds with the pot housing in a good connection with minimum heat and I never have had a cold solder joint doing it that way.

You may already know this and if so don't pay me any mind but if not I hope this helps some.

[LancerTheGreat]

Everyone's already gave out the good technique advice. But as far as helping hands go, the best thing that's helped me make my stuff as neat is making a little cardboard or mdf copy of whatever cavity I need to fit everything into, then just mount the pots and switches to it, secure it to my workbench and then get to soldering.
The helping hands come in extra handy with this set up since you just have to worry about the wires at this point, just watch out for accidentally soldering the alligator clips to your nice and neat joints.

[voodoorat]

you can always tell when i soldered something from the scorch marks, melted wire shielding, and blobs of solder everywhere.

[Buddha Pickups]

Try soldering hair thin pickup wire sometime.

[Longblacktie]

I used to hate soldering when I was using an inferior iron, or it was never tinned properly from the get go.

I got the teal weller posted above and even with a small chisel tip it melts solder on the back of the pot with no problem. Night and day difference. Now I finish soldering work quickly and efficiently.

I definitely did go through the learning stage of struggling with melting solder, getting everything to fit and not come apart, testing and re-testing when things only kind of worked.