Recommend Wires and Solder for Repairs

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:00 pm

This weekend I had to open up one of my guitars to fix some grounding issues. Besides the futility that I call soldering, I think I had the wrong size/type of solder and the wrong type of wire. What is the best kind of solder and wire to use for guitar pots and pedals? Do you have a particular soldering iron you recommend? I used one I bought at local hardware store and it doesn't work that great. Thanks

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:15 pm

Uhm. Standard pencil type from RadioShack, normal rosin core solder from Radio Shack, standard 20-22 gauge wire from Radio Shack.

Nothing special required at all.

Shaguar · Post by **Shaguar** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:53 pm

60-40 Rosin core solder, and ditto on the wire gauge.

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:28 pm

a clean soldering tip is the most important factor. if you dont keep it clean the solder/parts can't make direct contact with the tip and chances are it will resolt in a cold joint

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:36 pm

I use a low-wattage Weller iron with a larger tip for guitars. The solder and wire is just standard Radio Shack stuff. I got 3 spools of 20-gauge stranded copper wire on sale for $5 about 2 years ago.

The main thing is to use stranded copper wire, not anything solid-core especially.

analogsystem · Post by **analogsystem** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:17 am

Haze wrote:a clean soldering tip is the most important factor. if you dont keep it clean the solder/parts can't make direct contact with the tip and chances are it will resolt in a cold joint

+1 it took me a while (and a lot of iron tips) to learn this lesson. Keep a sponge handy or if you don't mind spending a couple extra bucks they have a cleaning / tinning dip at radio shack which is certainly nice when you are starting out!
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... =107597583