Soldering iron wattage

[LaughingGuitar]

Before I go out and buy a soldering iron to do pickup and guitar wiring with, I want to make sure I'm headed in the right direction. As I understand it, the best all-around wattage for working on a guitar is 40 watts and the best brand of iron to get is a Weller. Am I correct?

[alphamarquis]

yes

 

may i recommend a station also??

 

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1311&_nkw=weller+soldering+station&_sacat=See-All-Categories

[Ancient Mariner]

I'd suggest 40 watts as an absolute maximum that you might need for soldering to the back of a pot or a trem claw. About 15 watts is a more reasonable level (IMO) and is entirely adequate for all normal guitar work. If you do get such a large iron then make sure you can change the tips, so that you can use a fine one for soldering pickups and a wider chisel point for pots.

[stormin1155]

I have a 40 watt and a 15 watt. The only time I use the 15 watt is for very fine work like if I'm modding a pedal. For straight guitar work (pots, switches, jacks) the 40 watt just works so much better. You do need to be a bit careful not to cook your pots when putting the grounds on the back.

 

The technique I use is to (1) sand the area on the pot where you want to solder the grounds, (2) hold the ground wires to the pot with the heated solder, (3) feed in the solder, (4) then quickly drop the solder pick, up a flat screwdriver to hold the wires down so you can remove the soldering iron. The whole process takes only 3 -5 seconds. Going much longer than that could damage the pot.

[abrasive]

I use a 30watt for everything, and haven't had any problems with damaging components of lifting traces.

Just use you head, heat for the shortest amount of time possible.

[nighthawk15]

20 watt is plenty in most cases. I had I think a 25 watt radioshack iron and I just couldn't get it to work on the backs of pots for anything. No idea why because that should be plenty of power. I have a 40 watt Weller station now and use it at about half power for most wiring work, and a bit higher for pots. Its true that you don't want to burn the pots, but a colder iron that requires you to hold it on for a long time can actually end up heating up the inside of the pot more than a hotter iron that allows you to get your work done faster.

[ΨWindingΨ]

40w and a chisel tip.

 

After that watch this video.

 

[YOUTUBE]I_NU2ruzyc4[/YOUTUBE]

[LaughingGuitar]

That's a great video, thank you. I should mention I've never soldered anything before, so that video was very helpful.

[Kuroyume]

Variable 40W station here with a chisel tip. Very useful.

 

Something that I learned from a friend: When soldering ground wires to something like the surface of a pot (a big flat surface with no receptors), put solder on the pot first and then solder the wires to the pot. Don't move the wires until the solder cools. It makes for better cohesion.

 

Also, if you are squeamish, you should get a heat sink to avoid too much heat on electronic components.

 

Good luck!

[LaughingGuitar]

Variable 40W station here with a chisel tip. Very useful. Something that I learned from a friend: When soldering ground wires to something like the surface of a pot (a big flat surface with no receptors), put solder on the pot first and then solder the wires to the pot. Don't move the wires until the solder cools. It makes for better cohesion. Also, if you are squeamish, you should get a heat sink to avoid too much heat on electronic components. Good luck!

 

So you're saying on the back of the pot, put a pool of solder on there first, then stick the wire in the solder then remove the iron, to make sure the wire doesn't move while the solder is setting?

[Kuroyume]

 

So you're saying on the back of the pot, put a pool of solder on there first, then stick the wire in the solder then remove the iron, to make sure the wire doesn't move while the solder is setting?

 

 

Not quite. You heat the pot with the iron and create a pool of solder on the pot (by putting the solder wick next to the iron and against the pot surface). You can spread out the solder with the iron if you need it flatter or to cover more territory (for a number of ground wires, for instance). Then you put your wires on top of that and apply more solder (this can sometimes feel like you need three hands!). With flux-core solder this allows the solder to stick to the pot surface and then the wire and new solder will stick to the pooled solder more easily since the two melt together. It might also help to take some fine sandpaper or scotchbrite and clean/roughen the spot where the wires will be soldered first.

 

If you just apply solder to the wire on the pot it is too easy to create a cold solder joint or have the wires+solder not 'stick' to the pot. Until my friend showed me, there were three times that the wires didn't stick to the pots after putting the pickguard back on and testing my last mod (Vintage Noiseless pups in a MIM Fender Strat).

[LaughingGuitar]

Okay, got it.

 

My first solder project is I'm going to be putting a pre-wired GFS pickguard on my project guitar, so with that I'll need to solder the output jack and the ground, and then after that I was thinking of getting an SEG1 from Rondo and possibly replacing the pickups with GuitarHeads hexbuckers.

[vintage clubber]

I use a 40 watt iron with a fine point tip and very thin silver based solder. Works like a champ!