Here is a good tip. When soldering any pot, turn the potentiometer's shaft all the way to the OFF position (fully CW or CCW). By doing so before soldering you protect the fragile carbon resistor strip from damage from high heat/over-heating. If by chance there is damage it will be at the extreme travel of the wiper-arm/carbon strip. Basically, if it gets damaged better to have the damage occur at the extreme ends instead of in the middle of the operational area.
Something that i haven't seen any guitar video mentioning is solder flux ... The solder itself has flux in it , but especially for larger areas like the back of pots, the flux really makes life easy ... For wires, before i tin them i dip them in the flux and the solder is wicked so easily !!! A tub of flux is not expensive and it can really make your life easier 🙂
One of the best guitar soldering videos I've ever seen. You know what you're doing and you're teaching others how to do it correctly. i have never understood why it's somehow acceptable to have horribly cold solder joints on an electric guitar.
I'm doing the wiring on my first build and this video was incredibly helpful to me. Thank you so much! No other video went into the details that aren't very intuitive to me as well as this one did.
I've soldered, many times. Installed a bunch of pickups. However, I didn't realize quite how terrible/half assed my approach was. That is, until I stumbled on this gem of a video. Thanks dude. Much appreciated 🤌🏻🙏🏻🤘🏻
Just saved me $80 on my Ibanez SDGR bass. Plus however much it would’ve cost me to do any other time I needed this one wire resoldered. A like and a sub was a negligible price to pay.
This is such a great instructional for soldering. Between the closeups and detailed instruction (that’s lacking in every other instructional I’ve seen), this is, by far, the best.
superb video. very clear and easy to understand. was unhappy with my soldering so was looking for ways to improve....perfect video for this. thanks so much
I have watched a fair few soldering tutorials on guitar soldering and this is perfect, the best, clear instructions and most importantly very clear and close up camera work. Well done.
I want to change the pickups on my guitar but I am always anxious about messing up the soldering. Your video explains it all so well, especially about were to solder the ground wire on the pots, good information, thank you.
I can’t believe how easy you have made this. I successfully changed out the pots and replaced a capacitor in my guitar, saving me time and money. Thanks so much 👍🏻 Subscribed to your brilliant channel 👍🏻
Dankje!!! You nailed exactly some things I was thinking while struggling with some large old solder blobs on the back of pots in a tele. I think my iron tip needs to be a chisel tip for this. ❤
Nicely presented and tips well explained. 50 years in the electronic industry so a qualified comment! 5 years ago upgraded from a Weller WCPT station to a hakko station and watched the online PACE tutorials. Changed my methods and quality results. Always learning. Well done
Thank you very much! I've been having some ground issues on a recently installed harness, and this made me realize I may not be using the correct solder
Thanks Daniel, I struggle a little soldering grounds to the pot. People get so precious about what you’re “supposed to do” that soldering videos frequently get overly complicated and hard to remember. So thank you for the simple, straightforward walk through.
Hi Daniel, I wish you made this video last week mate as I have done my first ever soldering on my guitar, it turned all ok to my surprise but now thanks to you I can do it more precisely and definitely better. Great video as always. Thank you
Nice. Very well explained and informative. Finally started to do my own guitar work after all these years and always had a fear of soldering. Cant afford to ruin parts! Thank you!
I love you mate. Really, what a gem of a video. Just an observation, do not tangle the 2 wires @13:00. I've heard it's of no use and makes it more difficult to undo them if needed.
Great, wish I found this earlier. Update your meta tags so that you show up higher in searches. I looked for something like this and found a multitude of inferior videos. This spontaneously popped in my feed days after needing it.
Nicely done video with very good tips. I recommend getting a good soldering station, I bought a Weller WE1010. The temperature is 705 deg F for us US based folks. Have fun. Thanks
some of these pickup wires are so small, I have to push them through the post and wrap them, then I heat the other side and let the wires pull it through, I have never seen wires that large when I'm working on a guitar. But you and some others I've watched today, have made me realize I've gotten a little lazy with tinning the pot and I have also been tinning further from the edge, which hurt a 1meg pot I had, causing it to fail at max volume position. I will be using your method from now on, just that tip was worth the watch. Thanks
It sounds like you’re using a linear pot instead of an audio pot. Volume(audio) pots start with A, tone(linear) pots start with B. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you using a 1meg pot?
I really wish this video had been available all the times I soldered new pickups in. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The only consistent thing about my soldering work was the white-hot rage I was filled with by the end.
Extra flux always helps especially with rework of used components and larger surfaces. Fibre pen abrasion to remove corrosion can also assist solder to flow.
Finally! After much searching on the net you addressed so many of the things I was looking for. Many, many tips or tutorials (amazingly) don’t address the temp you want on the soldering iron. From now on 375 deg C is my setting ! Also thanks for mentioning its not needed to rough up with sandpaper the casing. Looking at old instructional videos, a rough surface is not a good thing with regard to soldering. Clean, though, is. But I really wish you would have given more tips, which I feel sure you actually know, about how best to solder several wires into the same lug. I mean on all guitars there is a necessity to solder more than one wire in to some lugs. Here is where I find I manage to do it, but I don’t feel like it is the best method. I have a guitar that I have to replace the volume pot. It his a Les Paul guitar, I can easily reach components, but on the lugs I have both the modern wiring and the treble bleed .001mF cap between input and wiper. So the one lug I need to older three wires to it, holding the wires in place is not easy. Also, maybe worse, I can solder the ground wires to the casing of the pot, but in the end also have to solder in the ground wire from the tailpiece that is necessary and it can be hard to heat up the solder and get it in place without having the other (already soldered in) wires come loose and lift up. Any tips on that? Again, your video is just about the best I’ve seen so far, and I learned a number of things I was wanting to nail down. Temperature was the biggest thing, I already experienced that I installed some new pickups and am sure my heat was too low and that I degraded the volume pot on the neck pickup. It became very bad at 10, was tinny, and weird, I’m sure it was damage from overheating for too long, which as you point out, means I was under temp and ended up heating up too long, that is the hard part for novices, that higher heat is actually less heat to the component because of the element of time and heat transfer. Anyway, thanks!
Wanted also to mention, it is hard to find that balance between information, is it for a total novice or for someone that is experienced but not necessarily in exactly the challenges of wiring ground wires to pots, etc. The internet is WIDE but not DEEP. Frustrating for people that actually have experience but need just a little more info for a specific operation. You did a great job of sidestepping that trap!
Just found your channel & tutorial..... Excellent video, explanations & camera work. Well Done and greatly appreciated!!.... and you just gained a new subscriber with notifications added. Looking forward to searching your channel for more informative and concise "How To" video's of yours. Thank you for your efforts and sharing your experience with all of us.
Great video very informative thanks for putting it out there getting ready to repair an LTD jack & a 1976 Univox guitar. Had no idea how crappy I’ve been soldering until now .
Hi Daniel. I was finishing up wiring up my latest build today and used some of your tips and advice. I feel my soldering today was better from watching this video. Many thanks
This is a great tutorial for soldering in general. I had always figured I was soldering two wires together wrong. I could never get it to work when I tinned the wires - turns out I was on the right track by twisting them first! Your technique on how to get good flow into the twisted pair will be a huge help.
Awesome video, thank you for taking the time to demonstrate proper technique. I just tried to install a new wiring harness in my guitar. By some miracle it works, because I’m a complete disaster with a soldering iron.
Hi Daniel, Thanks for the tip about sodering near the outside of the top of the Pot! Huge help. What is the best way to arrange multiple ground wires on one pot. Mine is always messy? Thank you
Hi Sean, Thank you very much. Soldering multiple wires on the same spot is challenging indeed. I start with a big(ger) drop of solder and solder the first wire as close to the edge of the pot as possible. I solder any consecutive wires slightly more to the center of the pot as quick as possible hoping the previous wire doesn't come loose. If they do, use something (the tip of some pliers for example) to hold them in place while you heat the connection until the solder flows nicely over all the wires. A bead of solder on the tip of your soldering Iron will help with that. Or you can take the easier route and make multiple small single connections along the edge of the pot.
@@UnquendorGuitars Thanks so much for a fantastic explanation. I can totally see where I have gone wrong. Your day job must be an Engineer or a teacher. Thanks again
I'm about to replace all of my pots and this video is incredibly helpful. I still get a little confused about the grounding, or about when or if it's necessary to cover the circuitry with metal tape, or at least the backside of the pickguard. I also wonder what causes intense noise when i move the jack and I'm plugged into the amp. Any tips for this kind of stuff would be greatly appreciated!
This is one of the most thorough and understandable soldering tutorials I've ever seen.
Totally agree, very good!👍👍👍
Very clear and informative, thank you!👍👍👍
Holy smokes. I never had a 15 minute tutorial go so fast. Thanks
Here is a good tip. When soldering any pot, turn the potentiometer's shaft all the way to the OFF position (fully CW or CCW).
By doing so before soldering you protect the fragile carbon resistor strip from damage from high heat/over-heating.
If by chance there is damage it will be at the extreme travel of the wiper-arm/carbon strip.
Basically, if it gets damaged better to have the damage occur at the extreme ends instead of in the middle of the operational area.
Something that i haven't seen any guitar video mentioning is solder flux ... The solder itself has flux in it , but especially for larger areas like the back of pots, the flux really makes life easy ... For wires, before i tin them i dip them in the flux and the solder is wicked so easily !!! A tub of flux is not expensive and it can really make your life easier 🙂
I bought a flux pen from my local electronics store. You can just put a small drop of flux on your component and the solder flows beautifully.
One of the best guitar soldering videos I've ever seen. You know what you're doing and you're teaching others how to do it correctly. i have never understood why it's somehow acceptable to have horribly cold solder joints on an electric guitar.
Excellent tutorial with great macro photography. Thanks.
I'm doing the wiring on my first build and this video was incredibly helpful to me. Thank you so much! No other video went into the details that aren't very intuitive to me as well as this one did.
Thank you. This has been the best video on soldering for guitars that I have ever seen on UA-cam. Top Notch!
I've soldered, many times. Installed a bunch of pickups. However, I didn't realize quite how terrible/half assed my approach was. That is, until I stumbled on this gem of a video. Thanks dude. Much appreciated 🤌🏻🙏🏻🤘🏻
Just saved me $80 on my Ibanez SDGR bass. Plus however much it would’ve cost me to do any other time I needed this one wire resoldered. A like and a sub was a negligible price to pay.
Got it first try too 🎉
This is such a great instructional for soldering. Between the closeups and detailed instruction (that’s lacking in every other instructional I’ve seen), this is, by far, the best.
Cleaning and tinning soldering iron tips makes a 15w feel like a 80w too...most people dont properly do that. Changed my life literally!
Your video helped me fix my bass on my own and I'm very grateful for the time you spent putting this together.
I'm ordering a soldering iron now. I'm excited to be able to play my bass again.
superb video. very clear and easy to understand. was unhappy with my soldering so was looking for ways to improve....perfect video for this. thanks so much
I have watched a fair few soldering tutorials on guitar soldering and this is perfect, the best, clear instructions and most importantly very clear and close up camera work. Well done.
I want to change the pickups on my guitar but I am always anxious about messing up the soldering. Your video explains it all so well, especially about were to solder the ground wire on the pots, good information, thank you.
Isopropyl alcohol also assists at the end to remove any residual flux and leave a shiny solder finish result.
Thanks again for your video
Absolutely the best tutorial for soldering guitar wires.
I can’t believe how easy you have made this. I successfully changed out the pots and replaced a capacitor in my guitar, saving me time and money. Thanks so much 👍🏻 Subscribed to your brilliant channel 👍🏻
Dankje!!!
You nailed exactly some things I was thinking while struggling with some large old solder blobs on the back of pots in a tele.
I think my iron tip needs to be a chisel tip for this. ❤
Nicely presented and tips well explained.
50 years in the electronic industry so a qualified comment!
5 years ago upgraded from a Weller WCPT station to a hakko station and watched the online PACE tutorials.
Changed my methods and quality results. Always learning.
Well done
Wonderfully thorough demonstrations!
Thank you very much! I've been having some ground issues on a recently installed harness, and this made me realize I may not be using the correct solder
I wish I would have found this video earlier. It's the best one so far and it would have saved me a lot of work. Nice tutorial.
Thanks Daniel, I struggle a little soldering grounds to the pot. People get so precious about what you’re “supposed to do” that soldering videos frequently get overly complicated and hard to remember. So thank you for the simple, straightforward walk through.
Amazing and thorough video. Great instruction and camera work. Kudos to you and thank you!!
Love the close up shots to see the action of the molten solder within the wire. Very cool, thank you.
Excellent material. It brought me clarity on this topic. Thanks for sharing it!
Very detailed and great close-up shots to actually tell what you're doing! Thank you so much for this tutorial! 👍
Love the wood jig
Hi Daniel, I wish you made this video last week mate as I have done my first ever soldering on my guitar, it turned all ok to my surprise but now thanks to you I can do it more precisely and definitely better. Great video as always. Thank you
Nice. Very well explained and informative. Finally started to do my own guitar work after all these years and always had a fear of soldering. Cant afford to ruin parts! Thank you!
Thank you. I haven't soldered in decades and have to replace a 5 way Strat switch. This was a great refresher.
I love you mate. Really, what a gem of a video.
Just an observation, do not tangle the 2 wires @13:00. I've heard it's of no use and makes it more difficult to undo them if needed.
Very clear instructions. Very good! Thank you
Priceless tutorial!!! Packed with valuable information…A must see for anyone interested in electronics repairs.
Great, wish I found this earlier. Update your meta tags so that you show up higher in searches. I looked for something like this and found a multitude of inferior videos. This spontaneously popped in my feed days after needing it.
The best and easiest to understand instruction video for soldering guitar electronics ....many thanks....loved it 👍
Thank you for this, very very useful tips and information. Saved me alot of hours and headache. Cheers!
Nicely done video with very good tips. I recommend getting a good soldering station, I bought a Weller WE1010. The temperature is 705 deg F for us US based folks. Have fun. Thanks
some of these pickup wires are so small, I have to push them through the post and wrap them, then I heat the other side and let the wires pull it through, I have never seen wires that large when I'm working on a guitar. But you and some others I've watched today, have made me realize I've gotten a little lazy with tinning the pot and I have also been tinning further from the edge, which hurt a 1meg pot I had, causing it to fail at max volume position. I will be using your method from now on, just that tip was worth the watch. Thanks
It sounds like you’re using a linear pot instead of an audio pot. Volume(audio) pots start with A, tone(linear) pots start with B. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you using a 1meg pot?
Fantastic. Such a well done tutorial. Thank you!
I really wish this video had been available all the times I soldered new pickups in. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. The only consistent thing about my soldering work was the white-hot rage I was filled with by the end.
I've been using hardware store soldering tin this entire time. It must be a miracle my guitars end up connecting just fine.
As always, your videos are very informative. Soldering is probably the hardest skill to master in my opinion.
Excellent video! very useful closeups and great narration. thank you!
Thank you very much! Great instruction, easy to understand.
Extra flux always helps especially with rework of used components and larger surfaces.
Fibre pen abrasion to remove corrosion can also assist solder to flow.
About to use a soldering iron for the first time to wire a guitar. Good video.
Very good presentation. Nice job, thanks.
Finally! After much searching on the net you addressed so many of the things I was looking for. Many, many tips or tutorials (amazingly) don’t address the temp you want on the soldering iron. From now on 375 deg C is my setting !
Also thanks for mentioning its not needed to rough up with sandpaper the casing. Looking at old instructional videos, a rough surface is not a good thing with regard to soldering. Clean, though, is.
But I really wish you would have given more tips, which I feel sure you actually know, about how best to solder several wires into the same lug. I mean on all guitars there is a necessity to solder more than one wire in to some lugs. Here is where I find I manage to do it, but I don’t feel like it is the best method. I have a guitar that I have to replace the volume pot. It his a Les Paul guitar, I can easily reach components, but on the lugs I have both the modern wiring and the treble bleed .001mF cap between input and wiper. So the one lug I need to older three wires to it, holding the wires in place is not easy.
Also, maybe worse, I can solder the ground wires to the casing of the pot, but in the end also have to solder in the ground wire from the tailpiece that is necessary and it can be hard to heat up the solder and get it in place without having the other (already soldered in) wires come loose and lift up. Any tips on that?
Again, your video is just about the best I’ve seen so far, and I learned a number of things I was wanting to nail down. Temperature was the biggest thing, I already experienced that I installed some new pickups and am sure my heat was too low and that I degraded the volume pot on the neck pickup. It became very bad at 10, was tinny, and weird, I’m sure it was damage from overheating for too long, which as you point out, means I was under temp and ended up heating up too long, that is the hard part for novices, that higher heat is actually less heat to the component because of the element of time and heat transfer.
Anyway, thanks!
Wanted also to mention, it is hard to find that balance between information, is it for a total novice or for someone that is experienced but not necessarily in exactly the challenges of wiring ground wires to pots, etc. The internet is WIDE but not DEEP. Frustrating for people that actually have experience but need just a little more info for a specific operation. You did a great job of sidestepping that trap!
Thank you! I really enjoyed the thorough explanation and excellent close up camera work.
Great video, excellent tips i shall use on my next project
Thank you. You are a life saver 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Great video! Thank you!
I had a few "aha!" moments! And a few "oops!" moments
Very nice and professional work. Best video I’ve saw on UA-cam on this so far. NICE JOB!!!!!!’
Thank you that was really good for a newbie
Thanks for this...I'm a beginner and this was exactly what I was looking for!!
great video! #1 tip, a clean iron tip. Its amazing in almost all soldering videos I see on youtube the iron looks like a rusty nail!!!!
Thanks for making this video brother! Very helpful.
Dude, this is so helpful. I'm trying to resurrect the Harley Benton I use for my little luthier experiments.
Best video on soldering. Great camera angels
Thanks Much! The information presented here will surely clean up my next project!
Very clear instructions and explanations…many thanks
Very good tutorial. Nicely explained
Just found your channel & tutorial..... Excellent video, explanations & camera work. Well Done and greatly appreciated!!.... and you just gained a new subscriber with notifications added. Looking forward to searching your channel for more informative and concise "How To" video's of yours. Thank you for your efforts and sharing your experience with all of us.
Nice job on explaining how solder wire. This is very informative.
Thanks I’m putting a push/pull on my Rick 4001 tomorrow and I don’t want to fubar it! Cheers 🏴🇬🇧
Great video very informative thanks for putting it out there getting ready to repair an LTD jack & a 1976 Univox guitar. Had no idea how crappy I’ve been soldering until now .
Very good and helpful tips. Thank you
Hi Daniel. I was finishing up wiring up my latest build today and used some of your tips and advice. I feel my soldering today was better from watching this video. Many thanks
Thank you for this great tutorial...very comprehensive.
ive never given such respect to the the L in Solder and the R in Iron until today. Thank u 🤘
Thanks for making this video brother...very helpful!
This is a great tutorial for soldering in general. I had always figured I was soldering two wires together wrong. I could never get it to work when I tinned the wires - turns out I was on the right track by twisting them first! Your technique on how to get good flow into the twisted pair will be a huge help.
Really good video! perfectly well explained and easy to follow, thanks very much for sharing!
Hi Max,
Thank you very much.
It's nice to hear you got some useful information from my video.
This is the best how-to guide on soldering I’ve seen! Thank you for sharing. Liked and subscribed!
I'm absolutly stealing your design. The split tips on the dowels are genius. Thanky you.
Amazing instructions. Thank you!
Thank you for the detailed close-ups for us near sighted folks,helped a lot!🗽🛸
Very neat work. Well done sir.
God bless,thanx Happy New Year 🎉
Excellent tutorial... thank you
Best soldering tutorial yet! Ty for sharing with us
Great information shared, thanks 👍🏻
Great in-depth tutorial of how to get the perfect soldering tips, many thanks 👍🤘
The best explanation on soldering! Thank you so much.
Hi Anna,
Thank you very much and you're welcome.
Thanks for your suggestions. it is very useful and important to see how you work 🤩
Thank you so much. Very good tutorial. Cheers from Canada
Awesome video, thank you for taking the time to demonstrate proper technique. I just tried to install a new wiring harness in my guitar. By some miracle it works, because I’m a complete disaster with a soldering iron.
Great camera work!! It really helped cement the info 🙏
Best video on soldering for guitar electronics by far!!👍👌
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the tip about sodering near the outside of the top of the Pot! Huge help.
What is the best way to arrange multiple ground wires on one pot. Mine is always messy?
Thank you
Hi Sean,
Thank you very much.
Soldering multiple wires on the same spot is challenging indeed.
I start with a big(ger) drop of solder and solder the first wire as close to the edge of the pot as possible. I solder any consecutive wires slightly more to the center of the pot as quick as possible hoping the previous wire doesn't come loose. If they do, use something (the tip of some pliers for example) to hold them in place while you heat the connection until the solder flows nicely over all the wires. A bead of solder on the tip of your soldering Iron will help with that.
Or you can take the easier route and make multiple small single connections along the edge of the pot.
@@UnquendorGuitars Thanks so much for a fantastic explanation. I can totally see where I have gone wrong. Your day job must be an Engineer or a teacher.
Thanks again
This video is the best! Thanks for the help!!
Great video and very helpful close-up shots! Looking forward to my first attempts, your video and instructions give me confidence! Thanks!
great tutorial ❤
I'm about to replace all of my pots and this video is incredibly helpful. I still get a little confused about the grounding, or about when or if it's necessary to cover the circuitry with metal tape, or at least the backside of the pickguard. I also wonder what causes intense noise when i move the jack and I'm plugged into the amp. Any tips for this kind of stuff would be greatly appreciated!
The arm of the input jack may be bent back and not making full contact with the cable when inserted.
Perfectly timed video. I’ll be wiring up 2 guitars this weekend, assuming the new soldering station arrives. Thanks 😀
I love your style of your lesson here. Great tutorial. I am glad I found your channel. Thank you!
I really like this video and will be applying your techniques. Good camera work demonstrating your techniques. Thank you sir.