soldering and pickups - is there a good/better way ?

nickp

idiot soldering question.  frankly I have a soldering iron but no knowledge or skill !

I'm going to change the pups in the guitar.  it will involve soldering two bits of wire together.

is there a "thing" that I can buy that will make the joint tidy and secure - ie like something to stick both wires into then fill up with solder or something?

or perhaps there are ends that I can solder on that are quick release so I can plug in and unplug pickups easier and quicker without soldering each time if I fancy changing them??

I can hear all you experienced guitar modders sniggering into your tetley tea cups as I type!

nick

juansolo

Connector block. Won't be pretty, but will make it easy.

nickp

@juansolo

that is the sort of wiring that I usually do.  just looks so.....like i don't care!!!

GuitarMonkey

Why do you need to solder two wires together? Wires should only be soldered to components.

If you really do have to lengthen a wire, twist the ends together first, then apply heat, then solder. The solder should flow and bond the wires together. Heat shrink tubing is the best thing to insulate the join, never electrical tape/masking tape/sellotape etc..

EDIT: I have been thinking about getting some of these though:

GOLD BULLET CONNECTORS 10 PAIRS / 20 PIECES

juansolo

nickp said:

@juansolo

that is the sort of wiring that I usually do.  just looks so.....like i don't care!!!

Yeah, it'll be a bit nasty. Personally I'd solder them But then that's no bother for me.

AlanP

Just learn to solder - it is a necessary life skill...

Danny1969

Soldering is very easy, the reason some people go wrong is they try and use it like glue and expect it to glue 2 pieces of cold wire together.  Once you learn to heat the joint with a nice clean tip the solder will naturally flow onto the joint and you will get a nice connection 

A good way to practice is to cut 12 pieces of solid core wire, or use 12 resistor legs of whatever. Now make these into a cube by soldering them together. At first your probably find making the second joint too slow will cause the first joint to come apart and so forth. But eventually you will build the accuracy to complete all 12. This is a trick I use to teach people to solder.

All soldering within a guitar is very basic anyway compared to soldering sm IC's and such. A couple of hours practice should see you good enough.

jpfamps

The main problem I've encountered is with people trying to solder with the cheap lead-free solder using an inadequately powered soldering iron, often one that was not designed for lead-free solder and has too low a tip temperature.

Leaded solder has a much lower melting point than lead-free. It can be bought from Halfords.

The really cheap lead-free solder is very hard to work with; the lead-free with 4% silver is much better and what I use when I have to do anything with lead-free solder.

Desoldering is harder than soldering.

To desolder leaded solder I add leaded solder to the joint first, then remove the solder with desoldering braid.

Finally, a higher powered iron will be easier to work with at it heats the joint up more quickly and thus reduces the potential for damage.

I would say 25W is a minimum requirement, but 50W would be better, especially if you are trying to solder to the back of pots which have a large thermal mass.

juansolo

Yup. I use a 25W with leaded solder when doing guitar stuff. You'll definitely need more for unleaded. Unleaded if horrid stuff...

jpfamps

juansolo said:

Yup. I use a 25W with leaded solder when doing guitar stuff. You'll definitely need more for unleaded. Unleaded if horrid stuff...

I should add you will also need a higher temperature iron for the lead-free. An old iron (any old iron?) will be designed for leaded solder and so will have too low a temp even if it's very power full.

For really recalcitrant lead-free solder I use a Well Magnastat with a No. 8 tip, which is around 425 deg C, rather than a No.7 tip which is around 370 deg C.

Of course with the higher temp the potential for co-lateral damage is much greater, although used correctly it should be easier to avoid damaging the work.

imalone

What everyone has already said is spot on, the soldering required for guitar internals is pretty simple, and the components you're working with are not easily damaged. You can get a pretty high powered solder station fairly cheap these days too.
That said, I've been experimenting with connector blocks, more too avoid making a mess of pickup leads when changing connections that anything else.

On the right is a 3A, 8mm pitch terminal strip, this is quite simple to use as you screw one or more wires in one side, and one or more in the other. However it's quite bulky. On the left are two pcb screw connectors, one with the leads cut off and covered with a fairly thick glue to insulate the stubs. One gives the same number of possible connections as the terminal strip on the right, but in a smaller space, however you need to feed all wires in from the same side and are limited to about three wires of normal pickup thickness per pole. I've used these for soldering up switches and pots, then connecting the circuitry to the pickups and the jack. Bulk of wire in the cavity is the other limit you hit here.

octatonic

Soldering two wires together- I would just do that and then use some heat shrink to make it look neat.

What is wrong with doing that?

hywelg

jpfamps said:

For really recalcitrant lead-free solder I use a Weller Magnastat with a No. 8 tip, which is around 425 deg C, rather than a No.7 tip which is around 370 deg C.

Corrected. You can still get Sn/Pb solder and for the private individual theres probably no law against using it.

jpfamps

hywelg said:

jpfamps said:

For really recalcitrant lead-free solder I use a Weller Magnastat with a No. 8 tip, which is around 425 deg C, rather than a No.7 tip which is around 370 deg C.

Corrected. You can still get Sn/Pb solder and for the private individual theres probably no law against using it.

I fully aware of both the availability of and regulations regarding use of leaded solder (as I should be seeing as it's part of my job......); indeed I both recommended it in an earlier post and gave advice on sourcing it on the high street (Halfords in case you can't be bothered to search this thread)

However, as I repair devices with lead-free solder in and so occasionally need to employ a hotter tip to aid its removal (a much harder task than soldering with it).

bluechargeboy

Danny1969 said:

A good way to practice is to cut 12 pieces of solid core wire, or use 12 resistor legs of whatever. Now make these into a cube by soldering them together. At first your probably find making the second joint too slow will cause the first joint to come apart and so forth. But eventually you will build the accuracy to complete all 12. This is a trick I use to teach people to solder.

Haha I'm going to try this one out when I've got about three days free...!

citizen68

Have pickup manufacturers a quicker way to install pickups (for comparison purposes) in their test guitars I wonder?

Gagaryn

Some pre-wired looms have sprung connectors - not sure how reliable they are long term though. There is a reason soldering is the norm.

Adam_MD

citizen68;221907" said:

Have pickup manufacturers a quicker way to install pickups (for comparison purposes) in their test guitars I wonder?

Dave Grissom had some sort of quick change guitar when he was working on the dgt pickups. I've always wanted to see what it looked like and how it worked.

johnnyurq

There was the Dan Armstrong quick change ones, not sure if it tok off though or was adopted by anyine else.

http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/dan-armstrong-pickups/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69675211@N05/8620102249/

Kinman do an expensive solderless sets as do EMG IIRC.

Maybe see if anyone can do similar but cheaper,

JookyChap

GuitarMonkey said:

Why do you need to solder two wires together? Wires should only be soldered to components.

EDIT: I have been thinking about getting some of these though:

GOLD BULLET CONNECTORS 10 PAIRS / 20 PIECES

These work really well and don't clog everything up like connector blocks do. I've got a problem with my hand that means my soldering is well shaky these days, so these have been a god send, just wrap them with heat shrink and no bother at all. Saying that you obv. need to solder to the jack/ground, but for playing around with different pickups they are a great simple solution that take no room. If you want to try them @GuitarMonkey I've got a bagful here, I'll send you some...

GuitarMonkey

Thanks @JookyChap, but they are cheap enough to buy a few should I need them.