Could someone please give me soldering tips?

[FELINEGUITARS]

Some questions:
How many Watts do I need?
Which temperature for what application?
Should I get an iron with a pointy tip or one with a beveled (do you know what I mean?)?

Good questions - I think a minimum of 25 watts - the antex XS 25w iron is a good (and cheap) starting point

Different solders melt at different temperatures - the one JPFamps listed with the 2% silver melts easily and has a short transition - so it hardens quickly when you remove the heat - makes it easier to get things soldered without burning fingers or shaky hands ruining your tidy work.

Lead free solder has a higher melting temperature than the old fashioned leaded stuff and this can cause extra problems for some people with their irons struggling to get enough heat.

Different soldering applications need different tip sizes on an iron - due to how they transfer heat
A long pointy tip is often good for circuit boards as it doesn't flood the area with heat, but this will struggle in getting the back of a pot hot enough.  A broad chisel tip  will have an easier time in transferring heat to the back of a pot.

I sometimes have two irons on when I solder - na broad tip for the backs of pots and a thinner pointy one for soldering to pot tags and switches

[jpfamps]

The better soldering irons will have a variety of different tips available, which can easily be swapped..

I generally use a spade tip (Weller PTCC7), and this covers most of what I do. For some fine PCB work I have a smaller spade tip and a pointy tip.

25W would be the minimum I would recommend, especially if you are soldering to the back of pots.

One general misconception is that too powerful an iron is dangerous to the work piece. In fact, the opposite is true; an under powered iron is more likely to damage the work than a more powerful iron.

A 50W iron will not get any hotter than a 25W iron, but is able to deliver heat more quickly to the solder joint.

To get a good solder joint, you need to heat the work to temperature where the solder will melt onto it, ie the work needs to be heated to a temperature greater than the melting point of the solder (which is one of the reasons leaded solder is easier to work with).

You need to heat the work as quickly as possible to minimize the total heat being conducted from the solder joint into the work. An underpowered iron will take longer to heat the work, and thus potentially can cause harm to components in what you are soldering.

Re temperature, I use 370degC for virtually all soldering work, except when confronted with the higher temp lead free solder when I use 425degC.