Guitar DIY - Soldering Wires to Back of Potentiometers

[@klaymeister]

This is the hardest part for me.

[@fuchsia5899]

Same

[@diegocampista3126]

Same here

[@RobMods]

He didn't mention that you need to use a temperature controlled iron, and I turn it up to 450 Celsius or higher for pot casings. Also, if the casting is tarnished, you should abrade it with fine sandpaper or scotchbrite. Another thing he didn't mention is that if the pot is installed in a metal plate (eg fender jazz) or an aluminium stompbox enclosure or similar, you'll need even more temp since that will sink even more heat from the pot casting. In these situations, I use a large 60w soldering pencil. Another very handy item for soldering is Blue Tack. You can use it to hold parts and wire in place.

[@brothermine2292]

@@RobMods : Why bother soldering ground wires to the pot casings? Why not instead use a WAGO 221-415 as a hub for all the needed grounding paths? With a WAGO, no soldering is needed, and I don't see a reason why the pot casings need to be grounded.

[@brothermine2292]

>juanjan__ : There's enough space for multiple 5-slot Wago 221-415 connectors in the G&L ASAT Classic guitar that I re-wired a year ago. The groove carved in the guitar wood underneath the controls (which provides space for the undersides of the pots & switch) is wider than the 5 slots of a 221-415, and is deep enough that Wagos could (if necessary) be stacked two-deep under the pots. In other words, plenty of space. In my project, I used one 221-415 as a hub for indirectly connecting all the grounds, and two 3-slot Wago 221s to indirectly connect the two pickup signals to the switch. The only soldering needed was on the controls while the controls were far from the guitar... no chance of the hot iron accidentally burning the guitar's wood or finish. The 3rd slot of each of the two 3-slot 221s is available for experimenting with a tone-altering capacitor. It's quick & easy to connect the capacitor's two leads to the 3-slot Wago and the 5-slot ground hub Wago. In other words, the capacitors don't require any soldering either. The original purpose of the Wagos was to help me replace the G&L stock controls with a Hoagland "1952 Tele-style" wiring harness. The Wagos worked fine. However, I decided I preferred the sound of the stock controls, and the Wagos made it quick & easy to disconnect the Hoagland and reconnect the G&L controls. To check whether a guitar has enough space under its controls for Wagos, you can unscrew the control cover plate and look.

[@EenChristJesus]

How hot does the iron need to be to facilitate a weld on the pot casing? My dwell times are way too long and the joints look terrible. The casing will not get hot enough to accept the solder.

[@srdjangavran979]

Useful, practical and easy to understand...

[@windward2818]

It is beneficial that Seymour Duncan in located in the US, in that, leaded solder is still available. Before you solder you have to understand what you are soldering and what is needed to joint metals using solder. The expert source for production soldering is IPC standards and training. Since this is hand soldering you will first choose your flux cored solder wire type, flux and diameter. A good choice for no clean guitar wiring would be Kester RMA 285 Type 66 Flux cored solder (2463379710), 0.031 inch diameter (a good size for the point to point hand soldering of guitar wire and components), Eutectic Sn63Pb37. A compatible liquid flux would be Kester 186-18. The 285 Solder and 186-18 flux are no clean, meaning the solder residues generally do not need to be removed. You can remove them using IPA if you wish. For soldering a wire to the back of a pot, which is a very non-traditional way of using a pot in a circuit, the task is a special one, in that, we are soldering a wire or a braid to a potentiometer metal case. For all hand soldering do not hold wires in your hand when soldering, always use a third hand so there is no chance of movement while the joint is solidifying, so both the pot and the wire or braid should be rigidly held in place while soldering. This is also true when soldering components to a PCB. If the joint moves while solidifying it is a poor or "cold" solder joint. Next clean the back of the pot, I like using a small grinder with Scotchbrite superfine to remove oxidation, then clean the pot with IPA and let dry. Then use a large enough chisel to transfer enough heat to solder the joint quickly. For back of pot wiring, this usually means the soldering iron is 120W or larger. Place the braid onto the pot, add liquid flux to the braid and the pot case, tin the soldering iron tip slightly, and solder the joint. Use enough solder to make a nice shiny joint in the form of a round smooth puddle on the back of the pot. If you have several wires or braids connecting to the back of a single pot, position them together and solder at the same time. After the pots are soldered it is good to condition the pots with Deoxit D5 spray before final assembly of the guitar. You can use added liquid flux to all the joints if the components are somewhat oxidized, the added flux will help remove the oxidation. The chisel tip used in the video is a little too small to solder to a back of a pot. For different soldering tasks you will change soldering iron tips. So soldering to a pot case would use a larger chisel than to the pot circuit terminal, where you may move to a conical shaped tip.

[@RobertFisher1969]

It might be good to copy the tips from the last screen into the description on these videos, because the links to other videos always block them on my screen.

[@jgschreffable]

Easier said than done. It's never been that way for me to solder a pot. New or old. What is the right solder iron temp to solder on a pot? Do we need to use a certain tip too?

[@SeanDS89]

take what I say with a grain of salt because I am new to soldering... but let me tell you this; the first couple times I tried soldering a wire to a pot, I was so frustrated and damn near depressed because no matter what I did, the solder WOULD NOT STICK! the reason for this (I found out later) was my temp wasn't high enough... I had heard you could mess things up if the temp was too high, so I was wary of this... later I discovered a guitar forum post and a lot of guys there were saying they just crank their soldering irons super high, to get the solder to stick to the pot. the important thing apparantly is to work quick, if you go fast, it will be fine. I was originally doing about 325 C (which worked pretty well for soldering stuff other than pots) but then I put it up to 400 C (about 800 F) and the solder stuck to the pot so easy! so to answer your question, 800 F worked for me, higher might be ok too, just work quickly (i wouldn't leave the iron to the pot more than a few seconds). Also the tip I used was like the one in the video, other tips might work just as well, but I think a good high temp is what's more important. Good luck Jeff, I hope this helps, I know soldering can be a pain in the ass when we're just learning lol

[@michaelwoods9005]

@@SeanDS89 yep. a lower-temp iron that you have to hold on the pot forever causes more damage than a hot iron that flows the solder quickly.

[@ReValveiT_01]

My tip? Do not use lead free solder (!) If you do you're in for a bad time. Leaded solder flows on the pot almost instantly and makes the job a pleasure..

[@RobMods]

For pot casings, I turn my iron up to 450C or higher. In some situations, I use a 60w solder pencil with a large chisel tip.

[@aevoguitars2576]

@@ReValveiT_01 thanks for that

[@salibaby72]

This might be a silly question but am I supposed to use only either yellow or beige covered wires for pots and switches and save the black for ground? I just completed a build using only black covered wire because I thought I was on a roll but now I'm scratching my head... Thanks.

[@seymourduncan]

Black for ground is what most folks use, but you can use whatever color wire you have handy.

[@arnobashtar6707]

I noticed the position of your solder pool is centre, does this give the maximum room for electrons to flow? As opposed to for example the side of the pot which is aesthetically more pleasing but shortens the path for the ground to flow.

[@FPChris]

The most important part of the video is covered by overlays at the end of the video.

[@glennmattison3180]

I don't have any issues with regular pots, but push pulls seem very sensitive. It's really easy to wreck the push-pull feature, or if it still works, it loses the click when you pull it out. Any tricks there?

[@fireball1066]

After tinning the wire and the pot, I use a squared off popsicle stick to hold the wire down against the pot as I put the the soldering iron on the pot-wire joint. Wood doesn't conduct, so it absorbs little heat from the soldering iron. This lets me remove the iron quicker and avoid damaging the pot. I hold the popsicle stick steady against the wire for a few moments until after the solder joint flashes over.

[@glennmattison3180]

@@fireball1066 Thanks that is a great tip I will definitely use!

[@xptical]

Can I use low-resistance pots? I pulled a 250k pot from an old HeathKit and low end is like .4 ohms on a Fluke 27.

[@Hereweare75]

Hi. Can you please make a video on how to put a J.Mascis Telecaster's neck back in phase? I can't find anything to address this. Thank you.

[@Fartinhalerr]

What kind of wire do I use to connect the pots, I'm not talking about solder but the wire that you'll be soldering to the pot?

[@FingalPersson]

What's the difference between Fender Volume/Tone 500K Split Axel Potentiometer and Seymore Duncan pots?

[@erickeman10]

on a HSH wiring, it's hard if you have to solder up to 7 wires to the back of the pot

[@Ry_Valz]

can you list what Soldering iron and what exact wire you are using???

[@ampturcoguitarwerks]

Look up KSGER T12 station and go with Mg Chemical 60/40 leaded solder or Kester 60/40.

[@aevoguitars2576]

What temperature do you do that at? You made that easy..never that easy for me.

[@fireball1066]

You need 700 degrees Fahrenheit. It can be done with less, but you have to stay on the pot longer and that might damage it. If your iron is one temperature, and perhaps less than 700 degrees F., solder the pot with NO other metal touching it. Any extra metal is absorbing your iron's heat and slowing down the process. Rob Mods comment above yours explains it well, and using tape to hold things still is a great idea. I'll also lay a screwdriver or pair of pliers on a part/wire to hold it steady. Juggling/moving parts (iron, pot, wire) will cause a bad solder joint. Keep your tip clean for maximum heat transfer, and after doing one pot you might have to wait a few moments to give your iron's tip a chance to get back to max temperature again. One other "tool" I find very handy is a wooden toothpick. I like to have solder already on the pot lugs, but not so much that it closes the little hole. Small wires, especially from humbuckers, don't poke through easily. With the soldering iron on the lug, I'll first poke a hole through it with the toothpick, do a half-spin, and remove. Then I insert the wire, put the iron back on (which re-flows the solder), and apply a quick dab of fresh solder. Keep old pots around for practice. I put them upside down with the shaft stuck into some cardboard to hold them steady. Spreading the solder on the pot (as in the video) is also very effective. Finally, use a tip you're comfortable with. I work best with a flat 1/8" (3mm) wide tip.

[@flamingseven8447]

@@fireball1066 My iron is maxed out at 30,000 degrees celtatude and it still wont stick.🤣

[@robn.7426]

OK, but for guitars with rear cavities don't you have to do this in the guitar? And also there are so many wires to go to ground. Do you put them all together and then solder them or solder each ground individually to the pot? Why not have all the wires go to a wire nut or something that has a wire going out to your bridge? Do the grounds need to go to the pots or can they go directly to the bridge?

[@robertskinner5498]

I sure wish they would answer these questions, a lot of us have these same questions. Can we get an answer on what temperature to run on the soldering station ( approximately).

[@StevenDoyleYes]

you need grounds on the pots to divert current from the hot (white wire). thats the job of the pot, to decide where to send current based on knob position. as more current goes to ground, the volume drops or tone filter sweeps. on the same pot, you can bundle into one solder or clean individual solders, as long as the entire ground has continuity. I prefer individual ground solders because it makes future pick up swaps easier.

[@dennisweinmann5041]

trying to do that for years, never worked... I totally butchered my guitar over and over... have multiple soldering Irons, liquids, solder, wires. I wasted so much miney on potys and stuff... I am so frustrated... yet I can´t find a thing I am doing different from those videos... I may be to dumb for that... All I need is one last working good wiring...

[@benlubin8562]

Which wattage soldering iron?

[@isolatedmortalityband5718]

The diagram for 1 bridge humbucker with one 1 tone and volume show four wires to be soldered to one of the pots-Are all four wires to be soldered in juxtaposition?

[@StephenFinkNRP]

One is easy but how do you do 3 or 4 wires without having them pop right back off?

[@ampturcoguitarwerks]

I try to twist them all together creating one ground area.

[@therightdude]

Late to the party, but if your solder is at 700, you can tap quickly and the wires won t pop off, or you can braid them into one to solder one braid...

[@caseytrent8020]

You didn't explain if you were using flux or not, unless I missed it.

[@seymourduncan]

Flux is great! This is just a snippet of our longer pickup installation course, which is free: tech.seymourduncan.com/p/101

[@GreggRoberts]

My solder sticks to the iron. I give up.

[@johnmalones2597]

Just keep practicing. It happens 😊

[@diggerdagger1345]

A temperature would have been super helpful

[@brothermine2292]

Is there a reason why the guitar pot cases NEED to be grounded? It looks like the pot cases are just being used for convenience, as a hub where other ground wires connect to each other. But other alternatives might be even more convenient. Why not instead use a WAGO 221-415 connector as the hub? The -415 can quickly connect up to 5 wires without any soldering, and a WAGO can be disconnected and reused many times. In particular, a -415 could connect the two pickups' ground wires plus the output jack's ground wire plus wire(s) from the ground lug(s) of the one or two volume pots. (If 5 wires isn't enough, a second WAGO could be added to handle additional wires that need grounding. One of each WAGO's 5 slots would be used for a short jumper wire connecting the two WAGOs together, so two -415s would allow up to 8 ground wires to be connected together.) I'm assuming there's room to fit one or two WAGOs somewhere under the controls. WAGOs are small, so I think this shouldn't be a problem. The 221-41x series (-415, -413 and -412) are rated for a wide range of wire sizes, as thin as 24 AWG. When I learned electronics, I was taught that solder isn't supposed to be used for mechanical connections, only for electrical connections. Wires to be soldered should first have a mechanical connection made for strength, for example hooking the wire's copper end through the lug to hold it in place before soldering the copper to the lug. If volume pots were intended to have wires soldered to their cases, then they would be manufactured with lugs on the cases. Some wiring designs rely on the metal control plate or metal foil under the pickguard, plus the metal nuts that hold the parts to the control plate or pickguard, to provide a grounding path between the two pots' cases and/or to the output jack. Using the control plate or pickguard foil in that way may be convenient, but it seems like poor engineering to rely on nuts staying tight, and sometimes the wiring diagram neglects to show that the control plate or pickguard foil is serving as a wire.

[@Jillz_Wutnot]

Tom MacDonald - Truth Speaker. Love your message Tom...keep going. The world needs more of you. dont ever stop. keep spreading the TRUTH!!!! God bless you.

[@shader26]

No sand paper?

[@michaelwoods9005]

Why? The backs of pots are already tinned. Sanding the surface won't cause solder to flow better; it isn't hot glue.

[@shader26]

@@michaelwoods9005 it will help. How are you claiming the pots are tinned? They are bare metal aren’t they? Smooth surfaces aren’t as easy to heat to the right temp quickly, there are tons of videos out there from experienced guitar techs all saying use some kind of sandpaper or Emory cloth to roughen up the surface.

[@timsimmons6322]

My solder just turns into a ball and rolls off, looks so easy here, never works like that for me.

[@johnrivera1533]

Make sure you give the back of the pot enough heat. Solder tends to roll off when the pot isn't hot enough. Took my a while to learn that. If you're still finding problems than get a bit of light sandpaper or a screwdriver and lighty scratch the place where you're soldering. That should help the solder stick to the pot.

[@michaelwoods9005]

You need a hotter iron with a chisel tip and tin/lead solder, either 63/37 or 60/40. Oh, and sanding the pot won't help anything. Solder doesn't "stick" to surfaces, it uses heat to form an inter-metallic bond. It isn't hot glue.

[@StevenDoyleYes]

@@michaelwoods9005 this is spot on. set your iron to 700 F, use a wide flat tip, 60/40 resin core. The whole contact process should only take 3-5 seconds.

[@jaymz_rg1003]

I was about to type the same thing! It seems that lead-free solder sucks and will "ball up" It just won't be very secure, either. I tried with an old pot that had 63/37 rosin core solder still on it and it melts a lot faster and sticks to the pot without sandpaper using a sharp tip (not a flat chisel tip) 15w soldering iron that heats to 440° C. I tried the lead-free solder on that same old pot and it won't stick. It's gotta be the solder type. Also, using the chisel tip makes it easier when working in the cavity.

[@DougHinVA]

he talks too much and does not go right to what to do.

[@vanbrooks]

i call bullshit what we want to know is what kind of soldering rod is that? how hot and what kind of solder. because it never just sticks to the back effortlessly.

[@jimmygrant3151]

No. whenever I try, the solder turns grey and clumps. pissed off now. Iron hot as shit. stupid soldering.

[@iankinzel]

I'm following the steps you mention here, and the process isn't working. I don't have a problem soldering switches etc., so I strongly suspect you're leaving out something important.