Questions about wiring/soldering.

Here's a link;



It's part one of a ten (I think) part series. It's long, yes, but it's worth watching if you want to deal with circuit boards particularly. But he lays out the basic stuff within the first few vids.

#1 ... Is there a concern about overheating the pot as I solder grounds to the back case?

Yes. The solution to this is usually less time on the work, not reducing the heat/temperature. Chisel tips are wonderful for this; higher mass means higher heat capacity which means the temperature doesn't drop as fast when it touches a high mass part to be soldered. As well as good surface prep... less surface prep means more time on the work to "burn" through the gunk. More time raises the risk of damaging components, and also will burn through flux faster and possibly wire insulation... which usually will just mean an uglier joint, but not necessarily a worse one.

#2 ... Is it advisable to "grind/rough-up the area of the pot where I intend to solder the ground connections to the case?

See above - the more prep work you do, the easier to get on and off with the iron. I like a little rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, and sometimes I use a flux pen.

To both of those: In the extreme, if you crack open a '60s guitar with pots that are tarnished to being nearly black, you COULD solder straight to the backs, but you'd have to leave the iron on much longer to burn through all the dirt, oil, rust, and whatever else, I'd guess between 5-10 seconds. The pot would probably survive, but it is risky. At that extreme it is obviously better to do surface prep. With a cleaner, new component, it is less necessary. For me, I always have a small jar of alcohol next to me on my bench, so it is almost no effort to do at least that (newer components won't have much tarnish, but they often have an oily film).

#3 ... Should I "tin" every piece before I actually make the final solder connection? Even the pot case?

Tinning is better, but you don't HAVE to if you can get good wetting of everything right away. If you're not sure, tinning is better. Some pieces of wire are more stubborn than others. It takes some experience/confidence to skip it.

#4 ... How much of the wiring should be done before the parts are mounted into the guitar? Many connections could be done in advance.

Purely a quality-of-life thing. In either case, I want to know how far away the components are so I can have good wire lengths and layout. So, it would mean having pots "mounted" on a piece of cardboard so I can get everything laid out right. If you have a rear cavity that is easy enough to work with, this will probably seem like an unnecessary extra step. Doing it beforehand without having the components laid out correctly would be counter productive.. you'll find a pot doesn't want to turn to mount the way you want because a wire comes off at a weird angle, or your lengths are off.

(This is extra important for something like a 335.... you want the components to be able to sit on a table and fall into the "shape" it needs to be in the guitar, and if it isn't, expect installation to be a total nightmare, if not impossible.)

#5 ... How do I "ground" the shielding? I read that ground wire can be soldered to the copper tape. (thinking of the two separate PUP cavities)

You can solder to copper, not aluminum. You'd need to get a mechanical ground, like screwing in a grounding lug. You can get creative and find places to sandwich a wire or get it to have continuity to another part. If in doubt, grab a meter and check for continuity. Sometimes just mounting the pots over a piece of it on the side is plenty. Electrons don't care that much.

If you can't get the foil in the p/u cavities to ground easily, consider just removing them. Your pickups have metal baseplates already, which are a shield. You probably wouldn't miss it.

#6 ... How important is it to have a solid "mechanical" connection at the joints before soldering? I see videos on the inner-webs where there seems to be zero concern in this regard. They seem to simply trust the solder.

I like the wire to be touching the component so that there is as little of a "bridge" of solder for the current to travel across. Or at least, that is how I think about it. I only put a bend/hook in as necessary to get it to stay still long enough for me to solder, or if I need the wire to come off the lug in a specific way for proper installation (tight cavities, etc.). When you see companies do a big wrap around a lug (Fender does this with switches), it is likely for speed... you can loop them all around real fast and come back and hit them with solder and not have to hold anything in place, you can just bang them out one after another. It doesn't add anything to the quality of the circuit, either for electronic purposes or physical stability.

If you can track down a chisel tip for it (in the neighborhood of 5/32" - 3/16") you'll notice a night and day difference. Some google leg work and you may find one for sale. I don't know that brand well enough to say for sure, though.

Grinding them it weird because you then have to get the tip to tin properly... I know a guy who makes his own tips, but it isn't something I'd try myself. Depending on where the heater is on that, there might not be enough material to work with, too. Plus, a big part of what makes a chisel tip better is the increased mass, not just the increased surface area, and you'd be reducing the mass by grinding it.

Those wires seem overly beefy.
And their insulation is shrinking back from the heat of being soldered.
I’m not keen on them.

Are you using leaded or lead free solder?

Don’t file the iron tip to reshape it. When the surface plating fails, the tip will become tricky to keep properly tinned, and be eaten away quickly.
Just buy and fit a more suitable tip.

I just ordered the correct wire.

Everything I have done up to now is just practice

I did discover that if I lay this pointy tip on its side and crank the temp up to maximum, it easily heats the pot case.

Yes, for soldering stuff that’s got more than minimal thermal capacity, a beefier tip than that needle point is needed.
Quick in and quick out, the time spent hot is typically where any damage is done.

A set of decent tips is inexpensive. Just sayin’

Yes, I looked all those options up.

I think if I had the higher end unit I’d be more confident on the “compatibility” aspect.

I’ll probably invest in a better station at some point.


I’ll get the correct wire in hand and probably go through rewiring all my builds.

I purchased a different tip as well.

My station indicates it used "T" tips and this appears to be that.  I will find out.

www.ebay.com/itm/120724054240

Solder by Larry Madsen, on Flickr


New bevel tip for iron arrived.  A bit smaller would have been good, but it will be better in some applications, especially pot cases.

Edited to add:  This tip is a T-4C.  I just ordered a T-2C tip, it is smaller.

Solder Station Bevel Tip by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

You should now this by now, but always check the silly stupidly obvious things. They trip the pros up more frequently than we ever admit. Only aliens are immune to them, and you're probably not an alien. And I can check wiring with a diagram five or six times in a row and miss the wire I forgot to put in place. When I have a problem I use a green sharpie on a printed schematic and highlight every wire and joint once verified present and correctly soldered. That's my fastest route to finding the issue. And check that all the ground wires are drawn on the diagram, because sometimes some are left out for clarity.

I pried the jack tip connection inward a bit and it snaps in really snug now. I inserted a coat of plastic into the channel to ensure no "hot" contact with the shielding is possible.

I'm thinking I might need to start a part-by-part trouble shooting test. PUP to Jack ... PUP to Switch to jack ... PUP to Switch to Volume to Jack. In order to determine where the problem is.

Not thinking I overheated a pot, but if I did, could it result in the entire guitar being dead?

I think I am ready to walk away from this situation for a while.

I’ll break it out again when I get home and see if I can get smarter. 😜

Thank you for the reply. 👍🏻