Soldering problem

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:48 pm

My soldering iron never seems to be able to melt the solder that's already on any of the guitars that I work on with it. I know how to solder pretty well, I completely rewired my old MIM strat from scratch, I built my amp and soldered the whole thing myself without problems, and I wired in the GFS pickups into my WD tele copy without problems but for some reason when I'm working on guitars where the electronics are already soldered I just fuck the whole damn thing up by not being able to melt the existing solder and just adding more on top of it, thus causing an issue of too much solder.

So anyway, my problem is: I'm trying to get My Univox Hi-flyer fixed up so I can sell it. The neck pickup isn't working at all as of right now. I opened it up, and the thing is a mess. So bad that I'm considering doing it all over from scratch again. The leads from the pickups are really weird too. It's like wire on the inside, rubber casing, and then mesh like wiring along the outside of the rubber. The outer wiring appears to be the ground, as it's grounded in a huge messy blob to the side of the switch. A lot of the rubber that is exposed is melted, and the wiring on the inside of the rubber appears to be half-split off in a few spots. I want to desolder the leads and separate them from the huge messy blob so I can clean them up and see what the problem is but I can't melt the solder. I was able to melt the blob off the side of the switch, but the solder blob will not separate so I can clean it up. Should I bother with trying to fix all this mess? Or should I just go get some new electronics and do it from scratch? It appears as though the wiring has been tinkered with before I bought it because there is electrical tape holding the ground wire to the bridge together. The wires are super thin, and almost feel like they will fall apart if I touch them or pull on them at all.

Any advice anyone has would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mr.Ripley · Post by **Mr.Ripley** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:49 am

It's possible that your soldering iron just isn't able to apply enough heat. A lot is required when soldering things to metallic surfaces like pots or bridge plates or w.e. The cheapest option is to get a solder gun which will easily cover all those kinds of tasks. Else you can just get a soldering station which will allow you to solder basically anything but in the end it's just a commodity.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:34 am

didn't you ever watch that video i made of me trying to unsolder the pickup metal covers off epiphone humbuckers?

i used 3 different irons. i got the thing so fucking hot the tip on the iron itself was getting gewey. and it still had no effect on that shit.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:54 am

robroe wrote:didn't you ever watch that video i made of me trying to unsolder the pickup metal covers off epiphone humbuckers?

i used 3 different irons. i got the thing so fucking hot the tip on the iron itself was getting gewey. and it still had no effect on that shit.

Yea dude... I remember that video. There's gotta be something else to do... It seems kind of ridiculous that I was able to build an entire amp with this soldering iron, but I can't rewire a shitty old univox with it?

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:22 am

This may sound really basic, but are you making sure the soldering iron is tinned before you try to unsolder things?

I find that if there is a tiny bit of melted solder on the soldering iron tip, its much easier to desolder parts.

If you already do this then maybe you need a more powerful soldering iron.

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:33 am

keep your tip clean kids

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:25 pm

mrperson wrote:This may sound really basic, but are you making sure the soldering iron is tinned before you try to unsolder things?

I find that if there is a tiny bit of melted solder on the soldering iron tip, its much easier to desolder parts.

If you already do this then maybe you need a more powerful soldering iron.

Yea It's clean and I tin it before I start doing any soldering job. I might just need a more powerful soldering iron. I need to sell this guitar soon though, so I'm probably just going to go ahead and completely rewire it. These components are old and crappy anyway.

cur · Post by **cur** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:22 pm

You could try a butane soldering iron.

George · Post by **George** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:33 pm

I've read that ~30W is ideal for guitar soldering. I have an 18W which works fine, though admittedly slow on things with a larger mass (like pots).

It sounds silly but I couldn't for the life of me work out why soldering my Tele pots take ages the other day. It was 'cos I'd left the metal knobs on meaning all the heat had to transfer over a much larger mass.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 8:09 pm

Mix a bit of new solder in with the old solder. Also if you are heating up solder on the back of a pot, Lay the iron tip on the edge where the solder and pot meet and as the pot and solder heat up, slowly slide towards the center of the solder blob. Again adding some new solder will also help. If this doesn't work, your soldering iron isn't hot enough.