WTB pot(s)! To help me learn that there solderin’!

robwright

The time has come to learn how to solder! I’ve been a bit ‘all the gear, no idea’ up til now! Got a decent soldering iron and all the extras, but I buy pickups and have to get other people to put them in for me! 

So I have about half a dozen guitars that I want to mod/build, which means I need a fair few pots! But before I go and spend a fiver a piece on some decent new pots which I may well destroy in the (learning) process, has anyone got some tatty old ones they don’t want that I could purchase and practice on? 

Thanking you! 

humps.b

Tbh, I never fried a pot whilst learning... Even with some pretty heavy handed first attempts using bad irons! I've also fannied about trying to solder, then resolder many times on the same pot, to no negative effect.

...then I fried a CTS pot a couple of weeks ago out of nowhere. Bad luck? Particular placement of joint? Broken to start with? Who knows

Funkfingers

Are you looking to learn how to solder parts together from new - relatively easy - or how to dismantle existing wiring and reuse it with new pickups, switches, capacitors et cetera?

I can mail you no end of cheap pots, taken from guitars that I have upgraded or repaired. These range from looking good as new to being so smothered in solder as to obliterate the markings in the casings. 

The idea behind the latter is that you can time how long it takes your iron to fry the innards at different heat settings.

humps.b said:

I fried a CTS pot a couple of weeks ago out of nowhere. Bad luck? Particular placement of joint? Broken to start with? Who knows

Nowadays, not all CTS components are created equal. The ones sold in Fender accessory packs are the cheapest Taiwanese version.

So far, DiMarzio Pro Parts and Six String Supplies posh versions are of the standard that people my age expect.

Dodge

humps.b said:

Tbh, I never fried a pot whilst learning... Even with some pretty heavy handed first attempts using bad irons! I've also fannied about trying to solder, then resolder many times on the same pot, to no negative effect.

...then I fried a CTS pot a couple of weeks ago out of nowhere. Bad luck? Particular placement of joint? Broken to start with? Who knows

Alpha > CTS these days IMHO.   If something fails (which is always a CTS!) it gets replaced by a full size Alpha.

robwright

Exactly what I’m after @Funkfingers - ‘frying fodder’ so that once I’ve mastered the art, I can try out my skills on some quality pot! 

Sporky

Might I repeat that soldering to pot casings is daft?

It's harder and more likely to damage the pot. To do it well requires more effort and a more powerful iron with a bigger tip. 

Just use a solder lug washer, or a loop of solid core wire screwed into the side of the cavity wall. 

I'm not saying don't practice, I'm saying don't practice doing it the hard way. 

Danny1969

I'm in agreement with @Sporky ;

It's a pointless thing to do. Ground the pots case by all means but don't bother smothering it in solder and trying to common earth everything on top of it. 
It's another pointless thing that's still done now because that's how they did it back in the day. Like putting reverse biased diodes to ground on the DC input of pedals or wiring up footswitches in a manner  they are more likely to fail

A good practice technique is take a piece of solid core wire and cut in into 12 pieces of one inch lengths. Then solder it together in the shape of a cube. 

robwright

Thanks @Sporky and @Danny1969 - I’ll definitely practice the cube thing! 

I’ve watched a million YouTube videos on technique - are there any that anyone would particularly recommend?  

Sporky

Personally I don't really like videos for learning, though if you can stand "soddering" as a word, the NASA video about learning to solder is absolutely superb. Maybe over the top for guitar electronics, but if you do it how they do it you'll likely never have a joint fail.

I think all you really need is:

• Thin solder - I like the lead-free stuff, but leaded is easier. Thin is the most important thing for ease of use.
• Clean the tip regularly - the brass shavings wipers are better than a wet sponge.
• A bit of tip conditioner is no bad thing.
• Don't keep using a worn-out tip - it takes a while, but they do eventually stop being good.
• Make sure the things you are soldering are also clean.
• Make a good mechanical joint - solder isn't meant to glue things, it just improves the connection.
• Stranded wires should be tinned before soldering (ie heat them up and flow a little solder onto them - you should still be able to see the strands, not a big glob of solder).
• Apply the iron, then apply the solder to the joint (with the iron still in place), then remove both.
• A good solder joint takes no more than three seconds.

There are others here with more soldering experience than me, but I've done tens of thousands of joints and first learned when I was about five (a stylophone kit!).

robwright

I'm going to check out the NASA vid for sure!

Sporky

I think this is it.

robwright

That is brilliant - like an episode of Twilight Zone! Thanks @Sproky!

Sporky

It's a lovely historical thing.

The obsession with cleaning everything is, though, admirable. If you build stuff like it's going into space and people might die, usuallly neither happens. 

BahHumbug

@robwright i probably have some pots that I can send you for nowt.  As a bonus, they may even still have wire soldered to them, so you practice desoldering too.  And believe me, that’s skill you WILL need.

robwright

@BahHumbug - thanks very much - I’ll send you a pm! 

I bought one of those spring loaded desoldering tools - are they any good or just a gimmick? 

BahHumbug

Yes they are good

BillDL

Another way to remove extraneous solder, other than a spring-loaded solder sucker, is to use copper desoldering braid (also referred to as solder wick).  It comes as a roll of flattened tubular copper wire braid that's not unlike the silver external braid of Gibson type wiring.  Hold it on top of the blob of solder and place the soldering iron on top of the braid.  The molten solder will wick into the braid and can be lifted away.  The braid gets hot.  I've burned my fingers loads of times.

Sporky

I use both. The suckers are good for getting the bulk of the solder up, braid is better for the final tidying.