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Just finished a tele kit build and I had this feeling the entire time I was wiring it up that it wasn't going to work. That feeling was probably because I suck at soldering and it was an ugly looking job by the time I was done.

I HATE HATE HATE soldering...

OK. That's enough for now.

Thanks. I feel better now.

Later this week I'll bust out the desoldering tool and start undoing/redoing it...

I am terrible at soldering. Which is why I take it to a guy who's been soldering wiring since he was teen.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

you guys are not alone.

The secret is lots of heat and the right tools. The soldering iron I have looks just like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-50-watt-Soldering-STATION-4-DIFFERENT-TIPS-free-solder-iron-lead-50w-kit-/301518009758?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4633dfb59e

You can get the name brand but this works great. Turn it fully on. Get thin diametre solder and just do a careful neat job of getting your wires on the terminals first. Then look through the internet at some nice jobs that you admire and can copy and you won't be far off doing it right. I am just about to post the heat blanket controller I am building in the tutorials section and I will have some soldering tips in there as well.

Hope this helps!

Shane

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Canada

I don't like soldering humbuckers. Dealing with coil wire and 28 gauge can be frustrating. The rest doesn't bother me.

I agree with Shane too. I like having the 260/200 gun also. Not only good for like grounds on pots/ground to spring claw but also for heating/steaming out small dents in woods.

I use to get frustrated just rounding everything up so when I got all the "stuff" needed and organized to be handy at the bench it all got better.

^ This. A proper soldering iron/station will do wonders for your work. So will proper prep. If you're trying to use one of those Radio Shack soldering irons, that's one of the major causes of your frustration. They don't get hot enough to work well, especially when soldering to the back of pots.

Get a good iron (or better yet, station), watch some youtube vids on good technique, and then give it another go.

I spent my early years as an electronic tech when everything electronic was hand soldered. If the solder job looks bad it probably is (cold joints). Here is what I learned. Have a clean tip (wet sponge to wipe tip) with a bit of solder on to help transfer heat. The idea is to heat the terminal and the wire at the same time with the soldering iron and melt the solder on to the terminal and wire (a mechanical joint like a wrap helps to heat both), Do not melt the solder on the iron when soldering. If the wire and terminal are hot enough the solder will flow on and into them. If it flows on it will look clean as the surface tension of the solder will pull it into a clean shape. If you are melting the solder with the iron then it cools when it hits the wire and or terminal and it will look bad. A good joint should look smooth and shiny with no dimples near the wire or terminal.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Get yourself one of these. I sit up late at night trying to think of things I can find an excuse to solder the next day...

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Do what John said. His text is spot on.
You do not need an expensive soldering station to make a proper solder joint.
I use a $10 soldering iron from Radio Shack with excellent results.
I do not solder wires to the back of pots. There are other intelligent ways to ground pot shafts.
Dan

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Dan enlightenment please. Maybe a picture?
David. What's the brand on that beauty?

Jeff - it's a JBC station, CD-1BC (currently available model is the CD-1BD). It's not cheap (around $500 with an extra 1.8mm chisel tip and 2.2mm high thermal capacity tip), but oh my lord....

I've been soldering nearly 30 years, and used near every make and fashion of soldering utensil out there, and I swear this thing comes from alien technology. Seemed like a lot when I first placed the order, but has quite easily proven to be worth absolutely every penny and more.

I know not everyone can justify such an investment if it's not a primary tool in earning your livelihood (in which case it can certainly pay for itself), but there are other more reasonably priced stations that can work very well too. I can do just as good a job with a cheap 25-40 watt iron in most cases, but it takes a bit more time to do the job, and a lot more time to learn how to do it proper with cheap irons.

Cheap irons create obstacles for novice solderers (they take more skill to successfully operate), and annoying inconveniences for the more experienced. There are a number of very good temperature controlled stations available for under $100, so if you can make a modest investment and anticipate doing more than 3-4 guitar wiring jobs in your lifetime I see no reason to bother with a cheap fixed wattage (or even variable wattage but not temperature controlled) iron. Get thee a Hakko fx888d or Weller WES51, and don't look back.

I was turned on to this system by John Coloccia of Coloccia Guitars. He actually has a youtube series on soldering, unedited and very long (hours to get through), but absolutely packed with everything from basic principles, to advanced techniques, to ingenuitive little tricks. If you have the time to watch through them over the course of days or weeks, and the ambition to learn to become a better solderer, I would strongly recommend taking the time.

http://youtu.be/-KAWGeqroWY

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

If your tip is too big it's going to get in your way. I agree with heating the joint and then heating the solder on to it. However there is something called tinning. Just make sure there's a little bit of solder on the iron's tip. It's more of a protective thing. Also, when you strip the wire you turn the braids together all nice and neat and then heat a dab of solder onto them. If you put too much, just heated again and smack the wire down on your bench to get rid of excess solder. This will make setting the joint much easier before you finalize it with a dab of solder. On certain contacts it will help to bend the wire at a slight angle to make it stay in the eyelet long enough that you can have your hands free to make the solder joint. It also helps to leave a good bit of excess wire that can be cut off later with a set of diagonal cutters.
Here's a tip… When you have globs of solder that are hard to get off. I find this a lot on vintage guitars where the joint has not been touched for 30 or 40 years. Put your iron on the glob, and put a dot of fresh solder on it and the heat will distribute much more quickly and evenly to the glob and loosen it up. Knowing how to use a solder sucker is also very helpful. The ones at RadioShack are crap. You want the Big, light blue, almost phallic looking thing with the yellow rubber stopper on the top that you get from the electronic supply houses. It just suctions the solder out of the joint so you can redo your connection with fresh solder. Your joints will not be perfect probably ever. Getting them to a point where they are acceptable will still require redoing a couple things. Another tip I can give you having done A LOT of soldering in my day as a studio owner/technician, I can tell you that is much work you can do outside of the tiny space the components live in, the better off you'll be. Take a piece of scrap wood and drill the appropriate pot spacing and solder your pots there. Get your switches prepared & leave excess wire hanging off of them that will be later cut and terminated to their appropriate joints. You would be amazed at how professional your solder joints look when you're not fighting with excess wiring and components inside the small electronics cavity of a guitar. Heat shrink looks professional and saves a lot of headaches by preventing shorts if used correctly. Leave the heat shrink un-shrunk on the joints until the end and just use a heat gun to shrink them all at once.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Well I've been spoiled. As a youngster I worked in the aerospace industry soldering to mil-spec (highest quality of soldering in the world) and I used a Metcal iron, it has instant heat tips. Also a source of frustration comes from trying to solder to the backs of pots besides being somewhat difficult it can cause those nasty ground loops that cause excess humming. If I may suggest a better way to do it, see below:

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

I forgot to mention one thing. Finding a way to secure the components while you are working on them makes all the difference in the world! I picked up a set of panavises years ago on the recommendation of a local studio tech for building TT patch bays. I mounted two of them to a scrap 2 x 6. They are still mounted to that same ugly, bowed piece of wood and I use them every time I solder small components. Why were we not born with a third arm?

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

I did this by hand using a Weller gun with the tip sharpened to a point.
That circuit board is 1.5"x2". It's not pretty, but it works. I'd need a better iron to do pretty that small.


Soldering isn't that hard, it just takes a little practice.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I redid the job but this time with an old 30 watt Rat Shack pencil point soldering iron. All is well. (But I still dislike soldering)

David thanks for the great reply. It really helped. Ben thanks thats very tight.

This is my main issue with soldering. Need one hand to hold the iron, one to hole the wire, and one for the solder. And all 3 have to be more steady than I can usually manage with a foot.

Dennis, you can hold the solder between your teeth. Lead is only bad for children with growing minds.

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Is there any lead in solder anymore? I think that's a thing of the past. Or maybe a different type of solder used in a different industry. Rosin core is what you want.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

Yeah, lead-free solder is available as is the old lead-tin solder.
The lead-free stuff requires a hotter iron.
The techs use it at work and hate the stuff.

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I love soldering. Means I'm almost done and ready to rock! Have a 60 watt Radio Shack iron. Get it good and hot. Plan out your wiring. Alligator clips help hold wires.

Dan, how do you ground without soldering the back of the pots? Solder to a washer and put it on the shaft?

Jim,
I make a thin copper plate or use copper foil to cover the bottom of the cavity.
I drill or poke some holes in it for the switches and knobs. I then run a ground wire to the copper.
The switches and pots make contact when installed.
You think Bourns would add ground lugs to their musical instrument grade pots.
It would make everything so easy.
I don't like cooking pots trying to solder to them.
Dan

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Cool. Have to try that. Been using copper foil as well. Thanks.

It's not that bad. I use lead free with a 30W Radio Shack iron, and don't have any trouble on small things. Specifically, Sn96.5 Ag3 Cu.5 http://www.techni-tool.com/488SO617 though it was about half the price when I bought my spool. Larger copper wire like 16g does conduct heat away too fast though, so a hotter iron would be better.

I much prefer lead free just for the peace of mind