xdamerx Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I have come to the conclusion about wanting to do all the handywork of this Les Paul I am building. I am wanting to do all the soldering for the wiring up of the electronics with it. Before I did this, I just needed some advice on some things before I get started. I have bought a soldering iron today, which is 12watt with a micro head, so it's small enough to do that small detail stuff. I am not sure if there is a certain type solder to use, or if any is good. I thought about getting the fine stuff, as I'm sure I don't need to use that much when soldering the wires to the humbuckers, as long as there is a good connect right?.. As well, I am needing to get some wire to hoop up my jack inlet and treble switch to the pot area(not sure what it's called), so if it's just general electrical wire or a specific type. The inside of that area as well, I am finding it hard to get the pots all at a proper flat angle, so do I need to have plate to put them on before I solder, so just kinda stack something so they level out. I've included some pics as well as I have a couple questions about them.. There is an arrow pointing this little wire, I was wondering what it is On this picture I have marked 3 separate bits as A, B and C. I was wondering what is meant by A, how come it's not connect, I'm guessing that it goes to the jack inlet. With C, I am not sure what this little symbol means And B I am wondering if this symbol means to be connected(soldered) to the pot base(if I am correct, I guess I have answered my question to C!) Any advice is good advice, as this is all relatively new to me, So thanks in advance! Sorry I am asking so many questions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elessar820 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 That wire is the bridge ground, well it goes to the tail piece. A is for the outside terminal of the jack. B is the symbol is for ground and yes you're right about soldering to the back of the pots, make sure everything is properly grounded or it won't work. For the long connection from the jack to the selector, use shielded wire or you'll get a terrible hum. I use Seymour Duncan's website for all of my diagrams, check that out if you need more diagrams, it's under the support section. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Advice: 1) Solder your harness (all pots and input jack) outside of the control cavity. That will be much easier. In fact do as much as you can outside of the control cavity. It can get kind of cramped in that small space. Be careful not to touch the iron to insulated wire... That will burn the plastic.... 2) I don't know what your solder iron tip looks like... But I hate the conical tips.... Ones that resemble a small flathead screwdriver tip are much better because you can use them to press the wire to whatever you are soldering to.... Good contact is very important when soldering... Its the same principle as welding... 3) With solder, more is not better... Less is better... Don't drip copious amounts of solder on your joint... Once the joint is established leave it alone.... And get the connection point HOT before adding solder. And dont forget to make sure you wire is pushed against (making a solid connection) whatever you are soldering it to... 4) A very small vise (Spelling?) works very well to keep things stationary while soldering.... So go out and buy one... THey are cheap and come in handy when you want to keep things still.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elessar820 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Oh yeah... use rosin core solder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryvincent Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 12W iron is too low for guitar electronics soldering. you'll have a hard time soldering at the back of the pot for your ground. even 30W is a bit low. you should use at least 40w IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elessar820 Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I missed that part. Radioshack has variable wattage soldering irons, I have a 20/40 that works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 12W iron is too low for guitar electronics soldering. you'll have a hard time soldering at the back of the pot for your ground. even 30W is a bit low. you should use at least 40w IMO. True... I cannot remember what mine is but its a very hot iron... I used to have a lower wattage iron and it got frustrating... If you don't want to buy a new iron and you want to solder the shielded ground to the back of the pot, use that small vise to keep the ground connected to the pot. Just as long as you have a good connection, you should be able to solder the shielded ground to the pot (regardless of iron wattage). you can also connect a wire from the shielded ground to the back of the pot... that will be easier with a lower wattage iron... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xdamerx Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 Wow guys, thanks a lot for all the advice!!! It's helped me out a lot! I bought the soldering iron today, and didn't open it until I heard something back from this thread. I'll try bringing the iron back tomorrow and getting a higher wattage one, as there were others there, I just picked this one assuming that the head of the iron was good for the small cavity work as the head is quite fine. As well, if I lets say to get a wire wrong, plugged it in not knowing, could this be bad for any of the electronics, or if it's not wired right, it just won't work. I don't think I'll get it wrong, but just in case! Thanks again guys!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CajunBlues Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 The pink A you have in the digram appears to me to be the input jack... Also, it is my understanding that you can connect the ground to bridge (or tailpiece) to any of the pots not just the one in the diagram... I always connect it to the tone pot for the neck pickup and its always worked fine... But maybe I have been doing it wrong all along... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xdamerx Posted October 11, 2008 Author Share Posted October 11, 2008 Is there a certain grade of wire I should use as well? I tried looking inside my Ibanez, but the wire had no writting on it, and maybe japanese wire isn't as good, or better than American? But then, the wire I buy could be British! Who knows! Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRom Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 No real grading to the wiring inside but stick with the same guage. If you're unsure of that (you can go by feel) take a piece with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Here's a link to some good soldering tips. http://www.guitarists.net/forum/view_bb.php?forum=40&thread=77092 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xdamerx Posted October 11, 2008 Author Share Posted October 11, 2008 I guess the gauge would be the same what is used with the humbuckers.. Thanks for that! Thanks for that link as well, quite useful!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil325 Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 12W iron is too low for guitar electronics soldering. you'll have a hard time soldering at the back of the pot for your ground. even 30W is a bit low. you should use at least 40w IMO. yes, you're correct, 12w is very low wattage. a typical hobby store should carry cheap soldering irons with enough wattage (50-60w) for very cheap. i bought mine (decent quality 7/10) for $7.99. the soldering wire was around $5.99 for a very big roll so you'll have plenty left over after you're done with your project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil325 Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 i might as well put the rosin core i used for my guitar: Miniatronics 60/40 .03 Rosin core high grade. make sure you do your soldering in a well circulated area because the fumes made are bad for you, etc etc (carcinogenic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobv Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 You'll have no trouble with the wiring. It's not rocket science and it is very rewarding. Yes the little Christmas tree symbol is "ground." It means you have a continuous connection that's not shown in the diagram (think of it as if all the little trees were connected but that would be too messy in the diagram). The ground starts at the outside/sleeve connection at the jack, and runs via the shield/braid of the wires and ultimately connects to the ground on each pickup. The ground will have lots of things connected to it along the way. First there are things that allow shielding from hum/noise: the covers of the pickups, the pot shells, the string ground, and of course the shield/braid on the wires (sometimes you have copper tape or carbon-black conductive shielding paint on the walls of the control cavity of the guitar body, or a metal plate that the pots are connected to, these would be connected to the ground line as well). Then there are connections to ground that are there for purposes of the circuit (each of the tree symbols on the diagram): the ground lead from the pickup coils, the third lug of the volume pot, the outer lug of the tone pot, and the sleeve connection on the output jack. Good advice above about an adjustable wattage soldering iron. There's a huge difference between what you can get mail order from electronic supply houses and what's available in the tool aisle at the home improvement store. Weller is a well respected company that makes hobby and professional models. I have one that clearly is in the hobby category since it's a plastic base and a much lower cost, but it does have the features of a professional soldering station. It has a base with a holder, a rheostat to control the wattage, and it takes the same range of tips that the professional ones do. I don't know if they ship internationally, but for comparison, consider that I got my Weller model WLC100 (adjustable up to 45 watts) for $45.00 US from Test Equipment Depot. That's marginally more than you would pay at the hardware store but it's triple the features at least. The Weller ST2 tip is a little smaller than the standard tip and is nice for smaller switch lugs (like on a Fender SuperStrat Switch) but the standard chisel tip will work fine for the pots and switch and jack on a Gibson. I run it with the knob on about 3 for most lug connections like pots and switches, crank it up to the highest setting (5) for tacking wire to the back of the pot shells, and turn it down if I'm dealing with printed circuit boards. I would recommend quality wire from Stewart MacDonald's (or at least see what they have and try to get it locally). Here in the States if you want the same type of wire used by Gibson you have to go to a guitar parts place. It is coaxial wire with one center conductor (the hot wire) and a braided shield on the outside (the ground connection). The advantage of the exposed braid is that you can tack the side of the wire right on the back of the pot to make the connection. You might not need shielded/coax wire to go from the volume pot to the tone pot but you should use it between the volume pots and the switch and back to the output jack. If you can't find the Gibson type exposed braid wire, then there's something referred to as "microphone wire" that is a very small coax wire with vinyl insulation on the outside covering the braid - that works, too, but it's another step to strip the insulation back (Belden is a quality name for any wire or cable). For little connections within the control cavity (like between the volume pot and the tone pot), a short length of 22 AWG stranded wire works fine. If you decide to go over to the Dark Side and wire up a Fender, you'll want to have some of the cloth covered 22 ga. wire on hand (terribly cool stuff, lots of mojo like a tweed case, only it's hidden inside your guitar - seriously though the cloth braid is easier to work with since you just clip the wire and push it back rather than using a wire stripper). Also pick up a packet of shrinkwrap, you won't use much on any given guitar but it's awfully cool stuff. Other goodies include hemostat (Kelly clamps, roach clips, scissor clips, not sure what you call them on that side of the pond), and a soldering tool kit like from Radio Shack (has a little probe to help hold wires and an aluminum heat sink to keep the heat from traveling to the plastic insulation as you solder). I also got one of those third-hand helpers from the tool aisle at a computer store, it's got little alligator clips on arms connected to a little iron base so you can hold things steady while soldering. Oh and, not that you're ever going to make a mistake and undo a solder connection, but at least get some desoldering braid and save up for one of those vacuum plunger desoldering thingies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil325 Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 i would say definitely get a desoldering braid because if you have no experience in soldering then you will tend to experiment and mess up a few times until you get the hang of it. at least these solder spots you're going to be working with are clear, but if you had to solder something that was already done before, you'll have to remove it or redo the old soldering anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.