Ever wired a guitar before?

V

VonBonfire

Well-known member
Respect.

TLDR version: I messed stuff up with a soldering iron.

I tried running my first rodeo on this LTD Viper. Me and the kid struggled through some 50's wiring yesterday and had issues. Had some long neck dime size Alpha concentric pots. Were kinda junk feeling from the get go. Won't' buy those again based on feel alone. Don't know if I wired it wrong or maybe put too much heat to them or something but the tone wouldn't work and they wouldn't emit sound at max volume setting. Plus the pots felt even worse afterwards, almost free spinning on one and it felt like detents on the other, lol. We got frustrated and called it a night.

So this morning I hesitantly widened the holes and used some short neck CTS pots that I didn't think had a long enough neck to work initially and didn't wanna widen the holes thinking that. Minus all the washers I was just able to get the nut on there. I think I either overheated the bridge tone pot or got solder debris in there cause it wouldn't turn for shit. Damn. But the rest of the wiring and pots otherwise came out working correct so I'll order a couple more CTS concentrics and hopefully nail the next one.

No, I am not a great solder man so feel free to rip me to pieces for your enjoyment. At least I was honest. But I'm learning and it probably saved me a couple hundred bucks at a tech, even with my mistakes. I do not enjoy the four conductor stuff with the tiny wires. I was thinking about trying to do a reverse phase switch next I just figured I better get it to work right with some standard style wiring first. It was definitely a bit of a challenge but I feel like I learned something. Less heat, better tinning, more patience. Maybe a couple more tools; one of those desk mounted lighted magnifying glasses and some gator clips.

I'll take all the tips and pointers your pros can offer. My iron will hit 480 degrees (according to readout). I think I fried the alphas soldering stuff to those tiny cases at that setting (450) so I dialed it back to around 400. Not sure where I should be running it. Son says 350-375. Thanks guys and Merry Christmas and happy new year too.
 
VonBonfire said:
Respect.

TLDR version: I messed stuff up with a soldering iron.

I tried running my first rodeo on this LTD Viper. Me and the kid struggled through some 50's wiring yesterday and had issues. Had some long neck dime size Alpha concentric pots. Were kinda junk feeling from the get go. Won't' buy those again based on feel alone. Don't know if I wired it wrong or maybe put too much heat to them or something but the tone wouldn't work and they wouldn't emit sound at max volume setting. Plus the pots felt even worse afterwards, almost free spinning on one and it felt like detents on the other, lol. We got frustrated and called it a night.

So this morning I hesitantly widened the holes and used some short neck CTS pots that I didn't think had a long enough neck to work initially and didn't wanna widen the holes thinking that. Minus all the washers I was just able to get the nut on there. I think I either overheated the bridge tone pot or got solder debris in there cause it wouldn't turn for shit. Damn. But the rest of the wiring and pots otherwise came out working correct so I'll order a couple more CTS concentrics and hopefully nail the next one.

No, I am not a great solder man so feel free to rip me to pieces for your enjoyment. At least I was honest. But I'm learning and it probably saved me a couple hundred bucks at a tech, even with my mistakes. I do not enjoy the four conductor stuff with the tiny wires. I was thinking about trying to do a reverse phase switch next I just figured I better get it to work right with some standard style wiring first. It was definitely a bit of a challenge but I feel like I learned something. Less heat, better tinning, more patience. Maybe a couple more tools; one of those desk mounted lighted magnifying glasses and some gator clips.

I'll take all the tips and pointers your pros can offer. My iron will hit 480 degrees (according to readout). I think I fried the alphas soldering stuff to those tiny cases at that setting (450) so I dialed it back to around 400. Not sure where I should be running it. Son says 350-375. Thanks guys and Merry Christmas and happy new year too.
Click to expand...
I wire all my guitars and solder my speakers. The first 5 times i wired my guitars, they had no sound. So I would have to trace what the fuck I did. Usually, drunkenly soldered something to ground that I shouldn't have.

Now, I can do the shit in my sleep. But, just off the top of my head, i preheat the iron, turning it all the way up. Then i wet the sponge.
Now you should sand all the pots and contacts that you are going to solder.
After the gun heats up, i clean it off with the sponge, then let it heat. I use a little solder to tin the tip. Then I tin the wire to be soldered. Then I make a spot on the pot where i want to put the wire, just put the tip on the pot and lightly go back and forth trying to evenly heat. You kind of stick the solder to it when you think it is ready and make a lake. The tip should move around and make it a nice smooth puddle. At this point if you make contact too long, you can damage the pot. I have always been lucky and not done that. then you go ahead and let it dry.

now melt it again with the wire on top of the iron tip, (so puddle is melting below while wire getting hot above)Alternately, you can try the wire on the solid puddle and try to heat both at same time like that...whatever is easiest. When it melts, put the wire down and let it become part of the situation. You can add different wires to the same puddle if you wish, but make sure everything looks smooth and pretty. no jagged cold solder points, and the wire shouldn't look crunchy. The contacts are much simpler
 
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If you brave the drive up here, I will show you my technique. I am not God's gift to it. But I can get the job done. I do much better than jackson custom shop, too. Jesus, they had my shit all kinds of fucked up.
 
I've been wiring my guitars for a good 20 years now. I was going to post some advice for you, but @Smash pretty much covered everything I would have said.

My first couple of times looked like shit, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it. One thing Smash didn't mention is to have the proper soldering iron. You don't want one that doesn't get hot enough or too hot. 40-50 watt should be good. I personally use a Weller WLC100. I'll set it between 4 & 5 for guitar wiring and am good to go.

Weller WLC 5-40 Watt Soldering Station
 
Smash said:
I wire all my guitars and solder my speakers. The first 5 times i wired my guitars, they had no sound. So I would have to trace what the fuck I did. Usually, drunkenly soldered something to ground that I shouldn't have.

Now, I can do the shit in my sleep. But, just off the top of my head, i preheat the iron, turning it all the way up. Then i wet the sponge.
Now you should sand all the pots and contacts that you are going to solder.
After the gun heats up, i clean it off with the sponge, then let it heat. I use a little solder to tin the tip. Then I tin the wire to be soldered. Then I make a spot on the pot where i want to put the wire, just put the tip on the pot and lightly go back and forth trying to evenly heat. You kind of stick the solder to it when you think it is ready and make a lake. The tip should move around and make it a nice smooth puddle. At this point if you make contact too long, you can damage the pot. I have always been lucky and not done that. then you go ahead and let it dry.

now melt it again with the wire on top of the iron tip, (so puddle is melting below while wire getting hot above)Alternately, you can try the wire on the solid puddle and try to heat both at same time like that...whatever is easiest. When it melts, put the wire down and let it become part of the situation. You can add different wires to the same puddle if you wish, but make sure everything looks smooth and pretty. no jagged cold solder points, and the wire shouldn't look crunchy. The contacts are much simpler
Click to expand...
This is great info and I didn't have to watch a 20 minute youtube video with some yakking tard to learn it. Thank you Smash. I was keeping the tip clean, and had the sponge, and was tinning it, but I wasn't sanding the area of the pots I was attaching it too probably causing me to use too much heat to get it done.

I need to come visit one of these days we just been down to one car the past few months and I been too busy, and lazy with my free time, to do the brakes on my rig. I actually was going to do them, disassembled the first wheel, of course one lug had been cross threaded by meat heads at the tire shop and broke, then I realized I had the wrong pads and said screw this and haven't messed with it since, lol. I need to knock that out, some diff and clutch fluid service on the wife's rig, and get back on that Sportster build...
 
MadAsAHatter said:
My first couple of times looked like shit, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it. One thing Smash didn't mention is to have the proper soldering iron. You don't want one that doesn't get hot enough or too hot. 40-50 watt should be good.
Click to expand...
I have an X Tronic model 3020. It has been a pretty decent unit so far. It says 75 watts so maybe it has too much heat at the higher settings?
 
The pot not working at max isn't you fucking it up, that's the knobs.

Those are specifically made to be tone pots and not volume, because when they are maxed they're out of the circuit

(if those are the knobs im thinking of, i've had this same problem)
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Pots have a coating on them that prevents a good solder joint. Sanding gets rid of the coating and roughs the metal up a bit to give the solder something to stick to.
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I'm pretty sure that was where my real mistake was. They got too hot getting the initial bond then were heated up again to attach additional wiring.

DanTravis62 said:
The pot not working at max isn't you fucking it up, that's the knobs.

Those are specifically made to be tone pots and not volume, because when they are maxed they're out of the circuit

(if those are the knobs im thinking of, i've had this same problem)
Click to expand...
Not sure exactly what you mean Dan. Are you talking about the Alpha pots? Or are we talking about the CTS? You said knobs but I didn't have any knobs on. The knobs I ordered were kinda cheap looking so I think I'm just gonna get some gold ones.

I am using dual concentric, stacked pots, on this Viper cause there are only two factory holes for pots and the cavity is just too tight without more routing or chopping to fit 2 vol/2 tone plus the selector switch. The specific pots I used the 2nd go round were CTS dual concentric 500k/500k and all but the tone pot on the bridge (which took the most heat) was working normally when I was done.
 
VonBonfire said:
I'm pretty sure that was where my real mistake was. They got too hot getting the initial bond then were heated up again to attach additional wiring.


Not sure exactly what you mean Dan. Are you talking about the Alpha pots? Or are we talking about the CTS? You said knobs but I didn't have any knobs on. The knobs I ordered were kinda cheap looking so I think I'm just gonna get some gold ones.

I am using dual concentric, stacked pots, on this Viper cause there are only two factory holes for pots and the cavity is just too tight without more routing or chopping to fit 2 vol/2 tone plus the selector switch. The specific pots I used the 2nd go round were CTS dual concentric 500k/500k and all but the tone pot on the bridge (which took the most heat) was working normally when I was done.
Click to expand...

I don't mean the brand. I mean it's a specific kind of pot that is used for tone knobs specifically.

"No load" i believe it's called.

If you try to use one as a volume pot, it won't work when the volume is maxed.
 
VonBonfire said:
I have an X Tronic model 3020. It has been a pretty decent unit so far. It says 75 watts so maybe it has too much heat at the higher settings?
Click to expand...

That iron is fine. Surprisingly it has the same max heat setting as mine, but the wattage is higher. I'm sure companies like to fudge the number on specs a bit. The thing to keep in mind is you want enough heat to melt solder and get a good bond, but not so much to overheat components. You can use max heat, but you have to be a little quicker.

Another piece of advice is to have everything in place before you start soldering. That way you're not fumbling with trying to solder and get the wire into position. All you have to worry about is heat the components and touch the solder to it. A set of helping hands is a godsend for this.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Another piece of advice is to have everything in place before you start soldering. That way you're not fumbling with trying to solder and get the wire into position. All you have to worry about is heat the components and touch the solder to it. A set of helping hands is a godsend for this.
Click to expand...
I tried to do some of that but it seems like a full game plan prepped out ahead of time will definitely minimize the number of times a component gets reheated.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
I've been wiring my guitars for a good 20 years now. I was going to post some advice for you, but @Smash pretty much covered everything I would have said.

My first couple of times looked like shit, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it. One thing Smash didn't mention is to have the proper soldering iron. You don't want one that doesn't get hot enough or too hot. 40-50 watt should be good. I personally use a Weller WLC100. I'll set it between 4 & 5 for guitar wiring and am good to go.

Weller WLC 5-40 Watt Soldering Station
Click to expand...
I also have the wlc100.
 
VonBonfire said:
I tried to do some of that but it seems like a full game plan prepped out ahead of time will definitely minimize the number of times a component gets reheated.
Click to expand...

It helps to have things preplanned. I solder everything I can outside the body. I like to take a piece of cardboard and copy the hole positions of the guitar onto it. From there I'll mount pots to the cardboard the way I want them facing in the guitar. Then I use colored pens of the color wires I'm using to draw out the way I want the wires to run. After that I just follow what I drew out. This helps me keep things tidy, use wire lengths only as long a needed, makes sure I don't miss anything.
 
I run my Hakko at 790 F .... all the time ...

I use these in all my Les Pauls and SG .... I love the paper in oil caps and the pre wired harness is totally worth the money in my opinion
1735094734870.webp
 
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