Soldering and fixing a Guitar.
<div class="IPBDescription">Need advice.</div>Alright, I was playing my new Bass, there was a pop and the tone changed(Around the middle setting) Now, I tried turning the knob and nothing happens, my tone's stuck and I believe a wire broke free. I haven't checked behind the backplate, but I will soon.
Now, I could tie the wires back together, but that doesn't really hold and breaks easily so I'm looking to solder it. I've never soldered or done any electric work. My friend says they charge a lot of money to fix these very small details and fixing it myself would be better.
What's the potential of my f*cking things up for good? How much is a decent and recommended soldering iron?
Now, I could tie the wires back together, but that doesn't really hold and breaks easily so I'm looking to solder it. I've never soldered or done any electric work. My friend says they charge a lot of money to fix these very small details and fixing it myself would be better.
What's the potential of my f*cking things up for good? How much is a decent and recommended soldering iron?
Comments
Read up on <a href="http://www.themodelmakersresource.co.uk/articles/article012.html" target="_blank">this</a>.
A few small tips: if your tip turns dark and dull, it's busted. It'll still work, but it will work noticably less, so get a new one. Make sure to coat the tip with solder after use to make it last longer. If you want to prevent oxidation, use flux core solder or just buy flux seperately. Also: make sure not to make cold joints, that is: make sure to heat up the materials you're soldering as well, not just the solder.
edit: By the way, some wellers are appearantly expensive as hell (imo), so just make sure it's a temperature controlled one.
Melt about 5mm of solder onto the iron, it'll cling there thanks to surface tension, and roll it around to get an even coating on the end 5mm of the soldering iron. Wipe it off on a damp bit of tissue paper. Put a bit more solder on the iron. The objective of soldering isn't to dollop the solder across the two bits of metal, rather to heat the metal and solder up to the same temperature so the solder forms a nice strong bond between them. The easiest and quickest way to heat up the metal bits is to sort of droop the solder droplet over the wire. The wire is partially immersed in the solder so it heats up quite quickly, depending on the thickness of the wire. The problem here is that some components can be sensitive to heat, so holding the solder blob on the wire for too long can damage it. When you're dealing with the kind of potentiometer in a guitar this shouldn't be a problem. They're pretty hardy.
After you've practiced joining bits of wire together, and to another bit of metal if you want to be through, doing your guitar should be child's play. Just put a dollop of solder on the iron, lower the dollop onto the pot contact then poke the broken wire into the droplet, keeping it touching the contact. Hold it like that for a second or so, then take the soldering iron away. The solder will harden and you'll have a good, solid join. Doing it in the confined space of inside the guitar might be a challenge, so if you can, detach the pot so you can have a clear shot at it.
Beware: prepare for the wire to get a bit hot when the tip is in the solder. It'll startle you if you're not prepared for it, but it probably won't burn you.
--Scythe--
Bah! You don't need to worry about no fancy-pance soldering irons. Just get a cheapo one from an electronics store and some flux-core solder.
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Still, a non-temperature controlled one sucks monkey nipples.
Scythe covered the instructions fairly well. Two things I would add: I used an old kitchen sponge (dampened and sitting in a shallow bowl or ashtray) to clean my tip regularly. And heatsink any components that may be connected to what you're soldering - this prevents possible damage from the heated iron. A simple alligator clip between your solder joint and the nearest connected component would suffice. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink-fix.gif" />
Cordless soldering irons are what's very popular right now. Buy a reputable one (Weller is a good brand). Stay away from Radio Shack junk btw...
That's pretty much all we used to do in the electronics course that was mandatory at our school. That and make randomly flashing boards of LEDs that served no purpose.
Other than that, Scythe's advice seems pretty good.
Oh, and do not buy lead-free solder if you can help it. It just isn't as easy to work with. And check out these vids:
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder1.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder1.mpg</a>
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder2.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder2.mpg</a>
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder3.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder3.mpg</a>
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder4.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder4.mpg</a>
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder5.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder5.mpg</a>
<a href="http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/solder_videos/solder6.mpg" target="_blank">http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/telescope/s...eos/solder6.mpg</a>
I assembled a Heathkit television decades ago, requiring 140 hours of assembly (mostly soldering) and never have owned/used a temperature controlled soldering iron. After this I owned and ran a TV repair shop, so I've got a decent background in soldering.
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Really? Try one if you have the chance, you'll be surprised how much better they (generally) are. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />