The art of soldering electronics...

[Thoraby]

My Swan has a slight buzz in the background whenever I play it, the volume pot is crackly(even though it's new), and the 3 way switch is also kinda crackly, and sometimes the signal drops when I switch to the middle pickup(even though I replaced the old switch because of this very reason).
Also, whenever I move the guitar around there's another crackly sound. This axe is all about crackling. So I'm gonna replace all the stupid cables inside the guitar, and solder them on properly, because I'm sick of this fucking crackle-fest that's going on everytime I plug this bitch in.

So I would like some advice on:
1. How to solder properly, in order not to get a big ass lump of solder on the joints, and not to melt away all the plastic covering of the cables.

2. What kind of cables to use? I live in sweden so brand names are useless to me, rather give me description of the materials and stuff.

And by cables I don't mean guitar cables, I mean the teenie weenie(see the thread in offtopic for this) cables inside the control cavity, which probably aren't even called cables, but for which I am too lazy to look up the proper wording.

I'm packing a big ass orange solder-gun that's probably way too powerful to do these things with. I will try and purchase a new one. What would be the proper wattage?

Thanx a million
Argh
/Thoraby the pirate

[Newc]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

30 Watts should be plenty hot enough, though it doesn't sound like the guitar. It sounds like the cable running into your amp from your guitar. Unplug the guitar but leave the amp on and shake the guitar cable. If it crackles, buy a new cable.

If you insist on rewiring your guitar, start with the wires that go to your guitar's output jack first. Replace only those two and then see if the crackling goes away.
I'd recommend a solid copper core wire about as thick as a .011 or .016 guitar string.

To get a good clean solder joint, start with a new tip or at least a very clean tip. New tips have a coating on them that have to burn off or else the solder will just drip off before you can touch it to the contact, so rub some solder on it when it gets hot until the solder sticks to the tip. Then tin the ends of your new piece of wire (obviously you have to cut off some of the rubber shielding to expose the wire, but you knew that [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]) and then heat the solder on the jack lug so it melts, insert the new wire into the little hole on the tab of the jack lug, remove the soldering iron and hold the wire in place until the solder cools.

Make sure you get your Ground and Hot wires correct.

[mm2002]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

Use 22 gauge wire. The trick for soldering (in short terms) is to get the solder joint hot enough to melt the solder before applying the solder, then only applying enough solder to make the connection. When it's at the proper temp the solder will flow onto the metal and into the wire nicely, not pile up on top of it. Practice on some of the old parts until you get the "feel" for it. You'll get the hang of it quickly. A 45 to 60 watt iron works fine for electronics.

[Thoraby]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

It ain't the cable. I've used three different cables, and they all work perfectly fine with eZ-bOb or the fender.
I shall get me some wires.

thank ye

[fabamp]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

[ QUOTE ]
Use 22 gauge wire. The trick for soldering (in short terms) is to get the solder joint hot enough to melt the solder before applying the solder, then only applying enough solder to make the connection. When it's at the proper temp the solder will flow onto the metal and into the wire nicely, not pile up on top of it. Practice on some of the old parts until you get the "feel" for it. You'll get the hang of it quickly. A 45 to 60 watt iron works fine for electronics.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good stuff. I might add that(if possible) appling the heat from below and solder from above allows gravity to help the solder flow into the joint nicely.

[Ace]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

Before you go in there and start ripping everything out and starting over, inspect the existing solder joints. If any of them look hazy or lumpy or like a pile of mud instead of a puddle of liquid metal, heat them with your soldering iron until the solder flows smoothly and you get a shiny single drop look to it. I also use a 25 watt iron in my shop, but that's just me.

If you do replace all the wires, do them one at a time, don't just pull everything out of there and start fresh. You may well have problems rewiring if you don't have any references, or if your not the best at reading a schematic.

[jgcable]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

Successful soldering requires the following.
Proper prep
Correct heat
Correct solder

Hakko has soldering irons that have turbo buttons on them that bump the heat up from 25w to 75w for a few seconds. It is a great feature when you have to heat up that huge glob of solder on a volume or tone pot.

[thurston]

Re: The art of soldering electronics...

[ QUOTE ]

Hakko has soldering irons that have turbo buttons on them that bump the heat up from 25w to 75w for a few seconds. It is a great feature when you have to heat up that huge glob of solder on a volume or tone pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds really cool. I'm using a 20/40W switcable unit from Radio Shack. I use the 20W setting for everything except Pots and switches with big lugs.