Freezing Guitar Pots Trick

[shred4life]

Well yeah, you may think so but like, don't batteries last longer if you freeze them and stuff too? I think it alters the metals of the pots or something somehow. + I think it pretty much eliminates any of the "small" damage which is done to pots when soldering them. It's been day 2 so far so we'll see if the effects are temporary I guess.

 

 

I've never heard of the freezing the pots thing before.But freezing batteries doesn't make them last longer.batteries will lose their charge if they are not used for a long period of time.If you freeze them they will not lose there charge as quickly as they would if subjected to heat or normal temperature.but once they thaw out they wouldn't last longer than a brand new battery.

[shred4life]

I can't believe this thread is still going after 7 pages! Nor that I'm still reading it! ( to be honest jumped a few pages) I thought I had found a solution to this years ago, I wired all my pickups strait to the jack socket, no tone or volume controls. The only problem was I had to rely on the amps controls and someone might have overheated those pots. I didn't want to take my amp apart and couldn't fit the whole thing in the freezer, so it turns out I didn't solve the problem after all. Seriously, 30 years of building and repairing guitars has taught me that the most likely problem to come from soldering is poor solder joints. Here's a method for making a good joint and it doesn't overheat pots into the bargain. Tin (apply solder) the tip of the wire to be soldered, also tin the tag or back of the pot to be soldered ( rough up the back of the pot where the solder is to go first). Tinning only takes a couple of seconds so little heat is requied except to the immediate area. Next bring the tinned surfaces together and reheat the solder on them with the iron, two or three seconds and it's done, the solder re melts and flows together, job done. Oh, don't use to much solder, just enough for the job. Best of luck.

 

 

well said.tinning is the key to a good solder joint.

[GarysBlues]

And a Heat Sink will attract the heat in a diifferet direction as to NOT overheat your Pots?

As for Freezing a Pot? Can't see how it will make anyting Sound better. I could see how it might add moisture to the Pot for a specific amout of time?

[guitarcapo]

i cALL BULL{censored}

[wader2k]

i haven't heard this about pots .....but I did hear a pup winder talk about freezing pups once.......

[GarysBlues]

Pick-Ups?

I could see where this might have an effect on Ceramic magnets. But not Alnico.

[DaleH]

Do you have to solder them in while cold?
You say they retain the new tone so it shouldn't matter if you put them in righ away as long as they have been frozen.
I left my guitar in my truck one night and the temps dropped below freezing. Should the tone be better?

[wagdog]

This thread has been chillin' for TWO days - it should have better tone now.

[AndersonTech]

Yeah - condensation in electronics always turns out well.

[mondaymonkey]

It's a known fact that even a normal freezer can do weird things that are good for electronics. Like the battery thing I mentioned. I even heard of dead laptop batteries that won't recharge, working again after being frozen. Hard drives as well.

Harddrive??? If you know anything about physics, you'll know by stuffing a room temperature harddrive in the freezer you'll condense moisterladen hot air onto the cold harddrive. Remember the colder air gets the less moisture it can hold... thats why your freezer is lined with ice. It comes from the warm air you get when you open your freezer.

[cavpilot]

So if Oran Juice's theory is true, then there should be a noticeable improvement in tone when one goes from playing in their 78 degree F house to freezing outside temps this winter. If we had someone here from the north end of Canada or Russia (or a polar cap) we'd be able to test this out right now. Or take your rig into a walk-in freezer at your local restaurant.

If this was true, why wouldn't every recording studio on earth set their air conditioning to sub-freezing temps?:poke:

[axepilot]

One of the most amusing threads I've read here in a while............

[ihavenofish]

So if Oran Juice's theory is true, then there should be a noticeable improvement in tone when one goes from playing in their 78 degree F house to freezing outside temps this winter. If we had someone here from the north end of Canada or Russia (or a polar cap) we'd be able to test this out right now. Or take your rig into a walk-in freezer at your local restaurant. If this was true, why wouldn't every recording studio on earth set their air conditioning to sub-freezing temps?:poke:

actually, PLAYING in the freezing cold... like say -50C in winnipeg in january... would have an effect on something, cause the resistance of the whole circuit would be a bit lower.

unfortunately having to play with mittens on would likely have a much bigger effect.

[wader2k]

Harddrive??? If you know anything about physics, you'll know by stuffing a room temperature harddrive in the freezer you'll condense moisterladen hot air onto the cold harddrive. Remember the colder air gets the less moisture it can hold... thats why your freezer is lined with ice. It comes from the warm air you get when you open your freezer.

yet this IS an old age technique for salvaging data off a dead hard drive.....

[OranJuice]

yet this IS an old age technique for salvaging data off a dead hard drive.....

 

 

See my point?

[ihavenofish]

See my point?

 

 

i dont think you saw his.

 

it may be an age old technique... but its still a myth. any hard drives that are resurected by freezing would likely also have recovered from being lef off at room temperature for several hours.

 

i really dont understand why you are still harping on this. you changed pots, and now the guitar sound a bit different.... thats normal. pots have a very wide manufacturing tolerance and the chances of getting 2 identical ones is actually somewhat small.

 

kitchen freezers dont get cold enough to do anything. its colder outside on a "warm" winter day here. my guitar doesnt change tone every time i go outside.

[Pope on a Rope]

i dont think you saw his.

it may be an age old technique... but its still a myth. any hard drives that are resurected by freezing would likely also have recovered from being lef off at room temperature for several hours.

 

It's not meant to resurrect a hard drive. It's normally used to retrieve data from a drive that is failing due to overheating caused by worn or defective bearings. Putting the drive in the freezer cools it down so that it can run a bit longer than if it had been started at room temperature. It's only meant to yield a little more working time before overheating again, it doesn't fix anything.

[wader2k]

i dont think you saw his. It's not meant to resurrect a hard drive. It's normally used to retrieve data from a drive that is failing due to overheating caused by worn or defective bearings. Putting the drive in the freezer cools it down so that it can run a bit longer than if it had been started at room temperature. It's only meant to yield a little more working time before overheating again, it doesn't fix anything.

 

 

bingo.....

[Coralkong]

I solder my pick to my thumb, stick my hand in the freezer for an hour, then play.

It works great, unless you screw up and hit your thumb on the strings.
Half of it broke off and fell on the floor last time.

But the tone, Oh, WOW!

[Armitage]

I live in Canada, so there's a good chance all my pots froze on the UPS truck one day... No wonder everything sounds so much better here!


Idiots.