I've been struggling with this for years and was saerching in preparation for a project I am finishing up. I stumbled upon this old video. Immediately went home and tried it. I, LITERALLY< made the best solder joint in my life, first try.....no lie. Thank you (many years late!)
Great news. Thank you. After building guitars for 18 years all of a sudden I could not get solder to stick to some new Bourns pots. I was about to call them.
Thank you sooooo much, i had been struggling for years with this issue and today it was driving me mad and wow this worked and solved a long standing issue id had with soldering the wiring etc in my guitars. WOOT WOOT !
OMG, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, I have burnt so many pots, trying to get the solder to stick . I didn’t know about the flux, so I was using my very sharp hobby knife to create a rough surface. Now I know about flux, I’m going to be using that from now on. 👍👍👍👍🤘🤘🤘🤘
Thank you!! I've been building a guitar kit for the first time, and the absolute hardest thing has been soldering to the pots, I'm hoping this video helps :)
You can get a tiny dollar store wire brush. Running over the area to be soldered is as easy as pie. The other consideration here is the silica substrate on the sandpaper can contaminate the area. The wire brush produces nothing. This works so fabulous, proper flux core solder literally absorbs into the surface. This is the same effect on the cheap Chinese pot or the shiny CTS high quality pot casing. It's a very fine small brush and it works great. Thanks for the video!
The pot keeps acting like a heat sink. I have a 60 watt iron, flux, and have sanded it. Driving me nuts because everyone makes it look easy and quick. I can perfectly solder lugs, but the pot wont get hot enough to melt solder, and i probably already damaged my pot.
I despise soldering on the back of pots, as a matter of fact I despise soldering as much as I enjoy playing the guitar. There must be an alternative to soldering out there. 🤔
@@pmorra6608 you actually have some brands making “solderless” kits: pickups + pots etc. For example EMG. Look for “solderless pickups kits” (if you haven’t done it yet in the past year)
Thanks for the help. I am working with flux core wire n still having a hard time. Should I use plain flux first? This very problem, and the fact that everything is so damn small, keeps me from doing my own wiring.
Don, I have a very similar flux dispenser. The needle gets clogged with flux residue and is unusable (needs replaced). How do you keep your from clogging?
I’ve gotten better at soldering throughout my time doing so. And it’s gotten easier as far as making taps on lugs etc. I’m an Electrician and so u would think I’d be great at it. But the HARDEST most ANNOYING part for me, is getting that first solder onto the pot as shown in the video. Technically the grounds don’t have to be “perfect” but they need to be contacted well to an extent. It’s funny that in my line of work it is usually the “easiest” part but with soldering, it’s not. Hardest thing to do is get solder somewhere new that has no existing solder. Moral of the story, if you cannot get it. Keep trying. I am here to confirm the difficulty of this. You will get it, 10000% flux, electric iron, dental probes, MAINTAINING a tinned tip. The most important things
I also came here having issues with CTS 450 pots. No flux just a shiny polished surface. Tried 60/40 after a 120grit but ended up taking a short piece of wire from the groung lug and crimping it underneith the locating tab that you usually end up bending flat. Will have to try rosin core silver solder to see if that's any easier.
I bought CTS switches and they had this problem of solder not sticking to the surface of CTS pot. So yes you need to scratch the surface and do this method on CTS switches as well.
+Wolf Lahti Oh the memories of my first modding job and I did it with Acid Core solder. Utterly destroyed all the electronics in a matter of minutes. I was devastated because back then there wasn't really any close place to go buy new parts nor did I have the money.
so this might be a stupid question but i was wondering how thick should the wire be for wiring. I once used a very thick one and it was difficult to work with.
+Tristan Povše Personally I recommend using the Cloth Push/Back wire. It's a little more expensive but super easy to solder and form around components. It's stranded too so it can handle movement well. I think its 22 gauge
This becomes an issue only with high-frequency ac signals, where the current tends to migrate to the outside surface of a conductor, "ignoring" the middle of the wire (called the Skin Effect). Stranded wire effectively has more surface area than a solid wire of the same gauge - but at the signal frequencies found in a guitar, this is not a concern.
Hey, i have an unrelated question, but i cant find answers anywhere. When you put the pot upside down when you sand it, you can see a little post ( left side of the pot, nearest to the camera, you can see it well) i cannot for the life of me figure out why this is there as it looks like it will make the pot crooked when you screw it iN) What do you do with that post? The pots im replacing are flat and dont have them...
dan shaw You can drill a hole for that to drop into. Stops the pot from rotating if the nut is loose and/or ensures the pot is installed in the right rotation if that was for some reason important. eg. If a knob had markings on it, more important if the shaft of pot has a flat rather than splines.
@@ivanbailey7190 It is two years later... But I have a response. There are Strat Pick guards that I have seen( and had) that actually have small holes next to the hole for the pots just for those little tabs. Otherwise, I would just bend them back and forth until they came off.
I’m just learning about soldering so bare with my two questions. 1. Could I use a cut off piece from an orange drop lead to make the ground instead of a “G” string? 2. What are the repercussions of solder running down the lugs of the pot?
+Joe Dov I believe the likely reason you heard not to use Flux was sometimes people would use too much and the stuff would leak into the pot and affect the wiper. A little goes a long way and if you're careful - it's fine.
I don't use flux. I think solder that is made for guitar wiring is made so it doesn't need flux. I never use flux. I just sand the back of the pot and I have no problem with the solder adhering to the pot. And I use a 30 watt iron.
I just verified that the right solder doesn't require flux: Read this. I found it on a site that discusses the best soldering products: Simple! 60/40 Rosin-core solder is what you’ll need for guitar jobs. This solder is a mix of 60% tin and 40% lead, and has rosin flux in the center to ensure that the solder melts and flows easily and quickly. Smaller diameters (.032″ - .062″) are best for guitar wiring. Solder made for guitar wiring has flux in it.
@@paulfrombrooklyn5409 that's the problem Paul from Brooklyn, i just noticed a lot of cheap solder kits from Amazon include cheap solder that doesn't have any rosin at all. This is fine for easy stuff like soldering connections, but makes soldering pots that much harder without the 60/40 solder you mentioned
Hey man, if I wanted to make my Les Paul quieter, could I swap my 500k volume pots to 100k, or maybe even 50k? Would it make the guitar quieter or would it just effect the tone? I have a 15 watt amp and it's too loud for my bedroom so I was wondering if this could be a cheap solution instead of buying a 5watt amp. Also, are there any negatives to mini pots? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I know this is 2 years old, but may at least help some others. Pot values such as 250K or 500K simply make the guitar brighter or "muddier" and don't really affect volume whatsoever. What you could try is slightly lowering the height of your pickups... This will make your guitar sound slightly more quiet and "open" sounding as the strings are further away from the pickup magnets.
What type of iron are you using? It may not be hot enough, pot casing need high heat and a bit more time under the tip than usual. Not too much more time as it will damage the internals.
hadley101 A straight forward 60 watt iron, though when i have made a blob of solder, and heated some solder on the tip it still doesn't manage to heat the whole blob most of the times, and the solder will stick to the tip but won't flow onto the pot, when i pull the tip back it takes the solder with it, it doesn't feel like 60 watts at all.I couldn't get the ground wire to stick on the back so i connected it to an unused lug, is that ok ?
Does sound like either there's something wrong with the tip or the iron itself. This is the soldering station I use, not bad price $33.00. Hakko knock off from China. www.ebay.com/itm/60-WATT-SOLDERING-STATION-STATION-60-/221740705906 You can connect the ground wire to the lug that is bent over and soldered to the top, that's ground as well. Pretty much are going to need a good iron to do this kind of work, pots need higher temps and you probably need a new iron.
Ok. This entire ordeal is about as illogical as a thing can be. It is NECESSARY to solder to the back of a pot. There is not one single pot on the planet, that is in a guitar cavity, that isn't soldered to aside obviously, from solderless connected electronics, such as emg active setups and the like. Manufacturers are being lazy in their production of pots made for use in musical instruments by not selling them prepared to be soldered on.
Bro, ive been trying to solder this 1 ground connection for the past two weeks. I have a 60 watt iron, flux, ect. The pot keeps acting like a heat sink, and wont melt the solder, at all. It sucks so much heat that the solder wont even melt when directly touching the iron tip. It is driving me nuts because everyone is able to do it in seconds, making it look easy. My luck, I've probably already damage the pot with too much heat, so if i ever do get it to stick, it will be defective. I can solder lugs, perfectly, but am failing bad at the pot.
@@BSIII I know exactly how that feels, you follow the instructions, but it just won't stick, the solder just stays on the tip and won't flow over to the pot, or the connection is so weak that you can push it loose, i got a new iron, and it's much better now, but, now i have the problem that i seem to be connecting the ground wires wrong, even though i'm stricktly following the diagram, and the funny thing is, all i'm trying to connect is one humbucker, with no coil splitt, straight to volume, and a kill switch and a jack, you'd think it would be easy, ......., now everything i touch grounds out, and the volume won't go off when on 0, it's starting to become depressing to be honest.🤣
The root cause of problems soldering to pots, is wattage! I do not need extra flux, sand paper, or anything with the correct solder station, regardless of how good you can solder, a cheep solder iron will make a mess, is more likely to damage the pot with excessive dwell time, and is likely to also leave a cold solder joint. takes forever to heat up, and should be thrown in the trash, a hakko 888, is $100, it will have no issues on pots, or large ground planes, and it will last, tips last as well, I used one for 15 years, until I upgraded to a metcal station. And it still works fine, but is used in the garage for auto stuff, my new station does all my electronics work, buy a hakko solder station, a roll of Kessler “lead” solder, you will never have issues on pots again. Or keep struggling? And use bandaids to try and make up for an underpowered iron.
Extra points if you can do it like he did with the pot balance on it’s shaft.
I've been struggling with this for years and was saerching in preparation for a project I am finishing up. I stumbled upon this old video. Immediately went home and tried it. I, LITERALLY< made the best solder joint in my life, first try.....no lie.
Thank you (many years late!)
How do you not have more subscribers? This kind of info on your channel is priceless. 👍
Great news. Thank you. After building guitars for 18 years all of a sudden I could not get solder to stick to some new Bourns pots. I was about to call them.
Thanks! Nice demonstration . I need to redo my wiring and this was just what I needed!
You don't even need sandpaper. You can just clean the back with isopropyl alcohol.
Man. This is why I love internet.
Thank you sooooo much, i had been struggling for years with this issue and today it was driving me mad and wow this worked and solved a long standing issue id had with soldering the wiring etc in my guitars. WOOT WOOT !
Thank you quick and straight to the point love it!!!
OMG, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, I have burnt so many pots, trying to get the solder to stick . I didn’t know about the flux, so I was using my very sharp hobby knife to create a rough surface. Now I know about flux, I’m going to be using that from now on. 👍👍👍👍🤘🤘🤘🤘
Thank you!! I've been building a guitar kit for the first time, and the absolute hardest thing has been soldering to the pots, I'm hoping this video helps :)
I liked this even before the video started. I need this video!!!
You can get a tiny dollar store wire brush. Running over the area to be soldered is as easy as pie. The other consideration here is the silica substrate on the sandpaper can contaminate the area. The wire brush produces nothing. This works so fabulous, proper flux core solder literally absorbs into the surface. This is the same effect on the cheap Chinese pot or the shiny CTS high quality pot casing. It's a very fine small brush and it works great. Thanks for the video!
Sandpaper might leave some powder, but that is easily removed. Wire brushes are great, but they'll never remove as much as sandpaper.
The pot keeps acting like a heat sink. I have a 60 watt iron, flux, and have sanded it. Driving me nuts because everyone makes it look easy and quick. I can perfectly solder lugs, but the pot wont get hot enough to melt solder, and i probably already damaged my pot.
Try different solder tin.
I despise soldering on the back of pots, as a matter of fact I despise soldering as much as I enjoy playing the guitar. There must be an alternative to soldering out there. 🤔
@@pmorra6608 you actually have some brands making “solderless” kits: pickups + pots etc. For example EMG. Look for “solderless pickups kits” (if you haven’t done it yet in the past year)
So awesome. Thank you for sharing this
Thank you for another great tip.
Nice video. And good advice for all.
Thanks for the help. I am working with flux core wire n still having a hard time. Should I use plain flux first? This very problem, and the fact that everything is so damn small, keeps me from doing my own wiring.
I wish I found it earlier. Toasted 6 chinese pots already.
Thanks for the well top military SECRET Breja...
+Josef Inigo I learned a lot of secrets working in Area 51. :)
I glue a small piece of sand paper to the eraser of a #2 pencil. Makes the tinned area just the right size.
+Tracy C That's a great idea.
Don, I have a very similar flux dispenser. The needle gets clogged with flux residue and is unusable (needs replaced). How do you keep your from clogging?
Gracias
I’ve gotten better at soldering throughout my time doing so. And it’s gotten easier as far as making taps on lugs etc. I’m an Electrician and so u would think I’d be great at it. But the HARDEST most ANNOYING part for me, is getting that first solder onto the pot as shown in the video. Technically the grounds don’t have to be “perfect” but they need to be contacted well to an extent. It’s funny that in my line of work it is usually the “easiest” part but with soldering, it’s not. Hardest thing to do is get solder somewhere new that has no existing solder. Moral of the story, if you cannot get it. Keep trying. I am here to confirm the difficulty of this. You will get it, 10000% flux, electric iron, dental probes, MAINTAINING a tinned tip. The most important things
CTS pots already have a layer of flux on them. You don’t want to scratch the surface
no they don't you will need flux u just installed 3 today
I also came here having issues with CTS 450 pots. No flux just a shiny polished surface. Tried 60/40 after a 120grit but ended up taking a short piece of wire from the groung lug and crimping it underneith the locating tab that you usually end up bending flat. Will have to try rosin core silver solder to see if that's any easier.
I bought CTS switches and they had this problem of solder not sticking to the surface of CTS pot. So yes you need to scratch the surface and do this method on CTS switches as well.
Just scratch it anyway, the video says it all !
stop the cap bro bro
would be a damaged by heat fixable?
guess will have to buy a new one and be careful as this tuporial...
What's the right temp of soder gun
What is the wattage of your soldering iron?
Do you have any tips or suggestions for what kind of solder to use for guitar electronic work? Or how hot of a soldering iron is needed?
+supercuberdude16 60/40 rosin-core is best. Use a Solder Iron and NOT a Soldering Gun. A 40-Watt iron should be plenty - that's what I use.
+Breja ToneWorks Ok. Thank you! I'm gonna start on your jimmy page mod soon. Currently have a 30-Watt iron. Great videos!
Be sure not to use acid-core solder. That is intended for plumbing applications, and the acid flux will corrode electronic joints.
+Wolf Lahti Oh the memories of my first modding job and I did it with Acid Core solder. Utterly destroyed all the electronics in a matter of minutes. I was devastated because back then there wasn't really any close place to go buy new parts nor did I have the money.
so this might be a stupid question but i was wondering how thick should the wire be for wiring. I once used a very thick one and it was difficult to work with.
+Tristan Povše Personally I recommend using the Cloth Push/Back wire. It's a little more expensive but super easy to solder and form around components. It's stranded too so it can handle movement well. I think its 22 gauge
is wire with more conductors better than wire with one conductor (one wire or multiple little wires...if you know what I mean)
This becomes an issue only with high-frequency ac signals, where the current tends to migrate to the outside surface of a conductor, "ignoring" the middle of the wire (called the Skin Effect). Stranded wire effectively has more surface area than a solid wire of the same gauge - but at the signal frequencies found in a guitar, this is not a concern.
Thanks very much. These things are always pesky for this electronics wiring hater!
Hey, i have an unrelated question, but i cant find answers anywhere. When you put the pot upside down when you sand it, you can see a little post ( left side of the pot, nearest to the camera, you can see it well) i cannot for the life of me figure out why this is there as it looks like it will make the pot crooked when you screw it iN)
What do you do with that post? The pots im replacing are flat and dont have them...
dan shaw You can drill a hole for that to drop into. Stops the pot from rotating if the nut is loose and/or ensures the pot is installed in the right rotation if that was for some reason important. eg. If a knob had markings on it, more important if the shaft of pot has a flat rather than splines.
Cut off with side cutters if it is in your way.
@@ivanbailey7190 It is two years later... But I have a response. There are Strat Pick guards that I have seen( and had) that actually have small holes next to the hole for the pots just for those little tabs. Otherwise, I would just bend them back and forth until they came off.
thanks .. very helpful
I’m just learning about soldering so bare with my two questions. 1. Could I use a cut off piece from an orange drop lead to make the ground instead of a “G” string? 2. What are the repercussions of solder running down the lugs of the pot?
1- Sure, you can perfectly use the remeining lead piece.
2- none.
Thank you I used flux on other soldering for years but I was always told not to flux pots go figure.
+Joe Dov I believe the likely reason you heard not to use Flux was sometimes people would use too much and the stuff would leak into the pot and affect the wiper. A little goes a long way and if you're careful - it's fine.
Thanks a mill
what is the function of the flux? I just use sandpaper to scratch a little bit before soldering it
hanten10 Flux helps the solder flow and makes for a very nice neat joint. I won’t solder without it.
I don't use flux. I think solder that is made for guitar wiring is made so it doesn't need flux. I never use flux. I just sand the back of the pot and I have no problem with the solder adhering to the pot. And I use a 30 watt iron.
I just verified that the right solder doesn't require flux: Read this. I found it on a site that discusses the best soldering products:
Simple! 60/40 Rosin-core solder is what you’ll need for guitar jobs. This solder is a mix of 60% tin and 40% lead, and has rosin flux in the center to ensure that the solder melts and flows easily and quickly. Smaller diameters (.032″ - .062″) are best for guitar wiring.
Solder made for guitar wiring has flux in it.
@@paulfrombrooklyn5409 that's the problem Paul from Brooklyn, i just noticed a lot of cheap solder kits from Amazon include cheap solder that doesn't have any rosin at all. This is fine for easy stuff like soldering connections, but makes soldering pots that much harder without the 60/40 solder you mentioned
@@harls7317 I don't buy cheap soldering crap from Amazon. I buy proper solder that is made for guitar wiring.
Hey man, if I wanted to make my Les Paul quieter, could I swap my 500k volume pots to 100k, or maybe even 50k? Would it make the guitar quieter or would it just effect the tone? I have a 15 watt amp and it's too loud for my bedroom so I was wondering if this could be a cheap solution instead of buying a 5watt amp. Also, are there any negatives to mini pots? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I know this is 2 years old, but may at least help some others. Pot values such as 250K or 500K simply make the guitar brighter or "muddier" and don't really affect volume whatsoever. What you could try is slightly lowering the height of your pickups... This will make your guitar sound slightly more quiet and "open" sounding as the strings are further away from the pickup magnets.
It didin work
I did all of this, and still the solder doesn't grab on.
What type of iron are you using? It may not be hot enough, pot casing need high heat and a bit more time under the tip than usual. Not too much more time as it will damage the internals.
hadley101 A straight forward 60 watt iron, though when i have made a blob of solder, and heated some solder on the tip it still doesn't manage to heat the whole blob most of the times, and the solder will stick to the tip but won't flow onto the pot, when i pull the tip back it takes the solder with it, it doesn't feel like 60 watts at all.I couldn't get the ground wire to stick on the back so i connected it to an unused lug, is that ok ?
Does sound like either there's something wrong with the tip or the iron itself. This is the soldering station I use, not bad price $33.00. Hakko knock off from China.
www.ebay.com/itm/60-WATT-SOLDERING-STATION-STATION-60-/221740705906
You can connect the ground wire to the lug that is bent over and soldered to the top, that's ground as well. Pretty much are going to need a good iron to do this kind of work, pots need higher temps and you probably need a new iron.
hadley101 I'll try another tip first then, mine cost twice as much so i'd hate having to buy a new one, alot of thanks for the info ! 👍
Let me know how another tip works out
Dandy
Ok. This entire ordeal is about as illogical as a thing can be. It is NECESSARY to solder to the back of a pot. There is not one single pot on the planet, that is in a guitar cavity, that isn't soldered to aside obviously, from solderless connected electronics, such as emg active setups and the like. Manufacturers are being lazy in their production of pots made for use in musical instruments by not selling them prepared to be soldered on.
Still won't work, this frustrates me like crazy.
Bro, ive been trying to solder this 1 ground connection for the past two weeks. I have a 60 watt iron, flux, ect. The pot keeps acting like a heat sink, and wont melt the solder, at all. It sucks so much heat that the solder wont even melt when directly touching the iron tip. It is driving me nuts because everyone is able to do it in seconds, making it look easy. My luck, I've probably already damage the pot with too much heat, so if i ever do get it to stick, it will be defective. I can solder lugs, perfectly, but am failing bad at the pot.
@@BSIII I know exactly how that feels, you follow the instructions, but it just won't stick, the solder just stays on the tip and won't flow over to the pot, or the connection is so weak that you can push it loose, i got a new iron, and it's much better now, but, now i have the problem that i seem to be connecting the ground wires wrong, even though i'm stricktly following the diagram, and the funny thing is, all i'm trying to connect is one humbucker, with no coil splitt, straight to volume, and a kill switch and a jack, you'd think it would be easy, ......., now everything i touch grounds out, and the volume won't go off when on 0, it's starting to become depressing to be honest.🤣
Omg!!!! I have fucked up many pots cause of this.
wait.... that's all that it fuckin takes??? omg
The root cause of problems soldering to pots, is wattage! I do not need extra flux, sand paper, or anything with the correct solder station, regardless of how good you can solder, a cheep solder iron will make a mess, is more likely to damage the pot with excessive dwell time, and is likely to also leave a cold solder joint. takes forever to heat up, and should be thrown in the trash, a hakko 888, is $100, it will have no issues on pots, or large ground planes, and it will last, tips last as well, I used one for 15 years, until I upgraded to a metcal station. And it still works fine, but is used in the garage for auto stuff, my new station does all my electronics work, buy a hakko solder station, a roll of Kessler “lead” solder, you will never have issues on pots again. Or keep struggling? And use bandaids to try and make up for an underpowered iron.