Soldering / pickup installation- tutorials?

Crazyblue1779

As mentioned in another thread, I’ve decided to be brave and (finally) learn to solder / install pickups myself. 

I have a second guitar (LTD EC 256) that will be  my test subject and I also have a basic soldering iron. 

I’m sure there’s loads of tutorials out there but are there any that are better than others?

Any tips or advice?

Switch625

My tip would be to practice on something else first (scrap pcb etc) until you get the hang of it before trying it on your guitar. My first soldering experience was on my guitar many years ago and I made a bit of a mess after simply watching some videos and thinking "that's not too difficult". It really isn't that difficult but like anything the more you do it, the better you'll get.

lovestrat74

@sixstringsupplies is a master. Lots of great YouTube vids  

PonchoGreg

I'd echo that. For a bit of guitar-specific practice, get an old potentiometer (if you have one) or buy a spare pot and practice soldering either some spare wire or the actual pickup wire outside the guitar first. Solder/desolder a few times, including to the back of the pot. 

The videos by sixstringsupplies on YouTube (also available on his site) also highlight good technique. They are not a soldering tutorial per se but if you watch how he does it, that'll give you some very good basics

JohnS37

Getting good at soldering is mainly a matter of practice, so have a few goes on things that don’t matter, using old wires you won’t need again.
Mostly you will feel you don’t have enough hands.  Us pro-solderers have at least four: one to hold the soldering iron, one for each wire or component, and a fourth one for the solder.  Five would be better, because something always falls over at the wrong time and you need a fifth hand to catch it before the iron burns your wrist.
if you can’t afford more hands than I recommend something to hold the bits.  One of those little vice-like thingies with two articulated crocodile clips works well.  You can hold a wire or two quite nicely with these.
There are two schools of thought over whether to twist wires together before soldering.  Certainly it makes it easier to keep the wires together and steady while you apply the solder, but the other school says that if you do that it will be very difficult to un-solder the joint if you change your mind later. So, matter of personal judgment.
Alway take care not to move the wires until the solder has cooled and set hard.  Any movement can result in a ‘dry joint’.  This will not pass current or signal correctly.  Dry joints sometimes look visually different (a bit matt looking), but not always.
Good luck, and get a bit of practice before you work on your 1959 LP Custom.

rlw

So a dry joint could cause a buzz which went away when you touched the strings etc?

JohnS37

rlw said:

So a dry joint could cause a buzz which went away when you touched the strings etc?

Certainly.  Dry joints cause all manner of mayhem in circuits, and crackly or intermittent signals is just one effect.  Correcting them is difficult because it’s not always easy to identify the faulty joint when there are hundreds of connections, so getting the joints properly soldered first time out is essential.

mikem8634

lovestrat74 said:

@sixstringsupplies is a master. Lots of great YouTube vids  

Can't echo this strongly enough.

FelineGuitars

One thing that is often overlooked is a soldering iron's ability to deliver enough het to the back of a pot quickly so the back of the pot heats up without that heat having enough time to superheat the rest of the pot and effectively cook it. 

I use an Antex XS25 25watt iron (which would seem a bit small) but it has a large chisel tip on it - Antex #52 tip which stores up a lot of heat that can be transferred to the back of a pot etc

This works a treat.

Learn to "tin" both parts before expecting them to go together - works much better

Pay extra and get silver content solder like Six String Supplies also uses. Gives a far greater success rate and a shiny joint

In some cases having a flux pen can be useful - adding a little extra flux seems to help the solder flow, even though you have flux in the modern solders

HAL9000

Advice from a friend of mine - 'try not to think of solder as being like glue'.

drwiddly

HAL9000 said:

Advice from a friend of mine - 'try not to think of solder as being like glue'.

Or at least think of it like a contact adhesive. You need to tin both surfaces with solder first then put them together and apply heat. Trying to daub a blob of solder onto a surface from the top of the iron will not result in a good joint!!

Solder will flow better on a clean surface. If you wipe the back of a pot with some switch cleaner then key it with a blade, solder will flow easily without applying too much heat.

Sassafras

I use a 40 watt iron with a 4mm wide chisel tip to get enough heat quickly to the back of the pot.

sergio

This comic is more geared towards electronic parts, but most of the advice still applies:

http://mightyohm.com/files/soldercomic/FullSolderComic_EN.pdf 

The only thing I would add is, remember that parts that are better at transfering heat (like the back of a pot or thick cables) are a bit more difficult to solder as a beginner, so the suggestion to use a spare pot for practising is good.