Do your own soldering on electric guitars?

[Dru Edwards]

Anyone do their own soldering for electric guitar pickups, pots, amps, etc? Hurricane Bob's thread got me thinking about how handy it is for guitarists who can solder, especially if you enjoy experimenting with pickups.

I do my own soldering although I've never had to touch an amp. How about you?

[fazool]

Yes and one thing I learned the years-long hard way is "do not skimp on soldering iron quality". Do not buy the cheap $15 walmart or radio shack soldering iron - it will suck and ruin things and nothing good will come of it.

Plan on spending $100-$200 and get a real tool, or don't bother trying.

This is one of those areas where paying more is worth every penny.

[Hurricane Bob]

I soldered as a kid when I had a train set with HO slot cars and built little towns with lights all over the place. I bought the stew mac soldering iron for $40.00 after using a high powered gun iron and frying out pots on one of my guitars. I still am not great at soldering but I can only get better.

[muscmp]

my hakko brand 40 watt just quit and i bought a weller 40 watt for $25 at home depot. it even has 3 led lights built in. great iron. don't spend any more than that unless you need a soldering station that allows 15-100 watt.

i use mine for guitar repairs, pickup changes and for guitar and audio amp repairs.

play music!

[Fret-O'File]

I learned to install pots, pickups, switches, jacks and anything else needed for electric guitar when I started playing in bands. We always had two guitar players and a bass player each with several instruments so someone always needed something changed or fixed and it seemed silly for some broke musicians to pay someone else to work on our gear. Then I learned setups and basic repairs.
It wasn't until I started playing acoustic six years ago that I really got into setups and repairs and I took a couple of classes. Now I don't think there is anything I don't try to do myself. I hate finish work though, so that would be the one thing I might send out. That is an art all by itself and I don't have those skills.

Hey, this is my thousandth post!
Haha I'm catching up Dru!

[Steve DeRosa]

After a wee dram or two of Scotland's finest - makes for some new and interesting tones...

[M Hayden]

The Weller $50 WLC100 soldering station is worth the cost. It has four heat (wattage) settings, a sponge, and an iron rest, plus it provides power to your selected iron using a standard two-prong 120v outlet. I have a couple of different irons for everything from brute force to gear finesse, and the station works well with all of them.

And yes, I work on my own guitars. Where possible, two-wire pickups are connected via gold-plated SMA inline connectors - cheap and very low loss of signal - and RG316 wire for low loss. The use of the inline connector also makes them easier to swap.

Four- or more conductor pickups use either 6 or 8 wire jumper connectors, which also simplifies pickup swaps and harness installation....wish the pickup makers would agree on standards for solderless installation, but 'till then this is what I'll use.

[Rodger Knox]

I've done a little soldering....

That's a hand etched and hand soldered preamp, it's 1 1/2" x 2". Soldering was done with my ancient Weller gun. I made six or eight of these, they all work.

[MC5C]

Yep. Started working life out as a bench tech doing computer repair, back when you could actually repair them. CRT's, etc. Have to find my up-close glasses before I do any soldering on guitars now, though.

[Darwin]

Yes I do. I was an electronic tech also from the 60s and started computer repair in the late 60's. I have a grounded tip 42 watt from that time period that still works great. It was intended for IC work. -- Darwin

[moon]

The need to fix cables & wiring is what got me into soldering.

Once you know how to solder, you can build your own pedals, mic preamps, DI boxes... You can even build your own amps. Many of the older, classic tube circuits that guitarists rave about are some of the easiest to build.

[rcboals]

I have been doing my guitar mods for over 10 years. When I started I had never soldered and youtube was non existant. If you want to learn plenty of videos showing you how. If you practice it will get easier and your solder joints will get better and better looking. I do all my pickup, pot, jack replacements and cable repairs. The only time I solder on an amplifier or speaker is when I know the wire I am soldering belongs there

[DanR]

I haven't done a ton of soldering but I did swap out the pickups in my PRS SE Singlecut Korina guitar for Duncan 59's. And once I had my confidence, I installed a midrange pot on my '75 Fender Vibro Champ. That was simpler than it sounds. It involved disconnecting the tremolo (cuz I needed the real estate on the front panel. I then replaced a 6.8K resistor from the bass pot to ground with a 50K pot. Instant midrange control. More mids if needed and even a little gain boost. I put in a switch to take out the tone stack (I had an extra control spot on the front panel from disconnecting the tremolo) but that was unusable to me, so I uninstalled that. The speed knob is now a midrange control and the intensity knob doesn't do anything as the pot isn't connected to anything.

[jonfields45]

Yes.

[printer2]

If I needed to buy an iron I would get a 25W Weller and a soldering gun. Don't see a need for a heat control never mind a digital one. A good flux and cleaning your metals to join gets you most of the way. Keep your tip tinned, a plastic solder sucker, a damp sponge to clean the tip every once in a while. Make sure your tip is screwed on tight.