Could someone please give me soldering tips?

[Ephemeria]

Just what kind of irons and solder I should use to wire the electronics in a guitar. Also what's the best way to apply/prepare the solder to the pots, toggle, output jack, etc.

[JacksonRR]

Tin your leads. Melt a bit of solder onto the bare wire ends, that is.
The backs of pots can be tricky. Scuffing the area you want to solder to with some sandpaper and getting a blob melted on there before attaching your pretinned wires is well known trick.
Heat the component, not the solder and do it as quickly as possible.
Don't breathe heavily on anything and turn the ceiling fan off to avoid cold solder joints. The solder needs to cool at it's own pace. Cold solder joints are dull instead of shiny and are not mechanically or electrically sound.
Invest in some alligator clips or some other appropriate small metal clip to hold things together for you as you solder.
30 watt "pen" iron for pots, caps, jacks, etc. Larger wattage guns can be used for speakers as they are fast, but never near pickups as the field those windings give off can demagnetize pickups or so I've been told. Not that you'd want to use such an overpowered awkward tool for inside the control cavity.

[ToneMonkey]

Make a little template of the holes and then you can do all the soldering away from the guitar. Loose solder does bad things to a guitars finish  :D

[choucas09]

There's a thread on this subject going on on TGP at the moment.http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=941029

[FELINEGUITARS]

Solder flows towards heat!!

Having solder on the tip of your iron makes it easier and quicker to transfer heat to the back of a pot etc

Be careful not to overheat components -you can easily damage them

Experiment with different brands of solder - not all solders are equal

It can be worth owning some high silver content solder

Lead free solder is often useless and tricky to work with

+1 to tone monekeys making a card or plywood template to hold the components away from the guitar to solder them

Do have a soldering iron stand

Tape paper, card or even a towel around the cavity where you are soldering as solder can "spit" and spoil finishes

[jpfamps]

Leaded solder is much easier to work with than lead-free solder, as it has a lower melting temperature when compared with lead-free solder (typically 180 degC versus 220-230 degC).

I've looked into using the lead-free solder and if you have to use it (you don't), you will need to have a 50W temperature controlled iron, although if you are doing a lot of soldering (I do), then I would advise having one of these anyway.

Also the various formulations of lead-free solder behave very differently.

The cheaper lead-free solder eg this from Maplin is hopeless. Don't use this.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/lead-free-solder-2819?ordercode=N50AW

The lead-free silver solder is much better. Oddly the Rapid Electronics own brand lead-free silver solder, which on the face of it has the identical formulation to the Maplin lead-free silver solder, is much easier to work with.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/lead-free-silver-solder-34965
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Lead-free-solder-Rapid/66160

Regardless, as you are not manufacturing for sale in the EU, you can use leaded solder with is still available from Rapid electronics.

The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030

[Shag101]

I found this interesting when doing my guitar over. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnplanetz#p/u/25/kTooyaxdDV0

Wiring Up Guitar Electronics 1 - 5

[ToneMonkey]

Good advise from jpf.

He's had more tined ends that Jordan's had bell ends

[MrBump]

I've always struggled with the back of pots, but I'm getting there now - i scratch the hell out of them with a screwdriver, and then make sure that I get them really hot and get loads of shinny solder on there.

And yes - tin your wires and iron tips!

[juansolo]

- Keep your tip clean. Good advice for all tips to be fair.

- Get a stand and a sponge (for the above).

- Use decent leaded solder. Don't mess with that unleaded shitee.

- Get a solder sucker for when you f**k it up. Nothing worse than coming accross a humongous blob of solder with loads of cut wires sticking out of it.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Even though I have done a lot of soldering in my life I am enjoying this thread.

Today I went to Rapid Electronics like Frank at JPFamps suggested and got some of the solder that he recommended.
I am looking forward to testing it out and sharing my thoughts with you all

 

The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030

Please if anyone has some good input about soldering and tools & techniques , pics or video links post them on this thread .
I will sift through it all and try to combine the best bits to come up with a post that we can have as a sticky topic that we can all enjoy/benefit from....

I may even post some pics or make a video clip - or will be happy if anyone else has some

[AndyR]

 

The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030

What does the "SWG" mean (18SWG, 22SWG, 26SWG)? I'm guessing some sort of weight/thickness measurement?

And which of the three would you guys recommend for general, mainly guitar, soldering duties?

Many thanks :D

[FELINEGUITARS]

The best solder to us is leaded solder with 2% silver, as this has the lowest melting temperature and sharpest phase transition.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fasteners-Production-Equipment/Soldering-Equipment/Solder-Fluxes/Future-HF-low-melting-point-halide-free-no-clean-cored-solder/60030

What does the "SWG" mean (18SWG, 22SWG, 26SWG)? I'm guessing some sort of weight/thickness measurement?

And which of the three would you guys recommend for general, mainly guitar, soldering duties?

Many thanks :D

SWG - standard wire gauge
Bigger number = smaller diameter
SWG18=1.2mm ideal all round solder for guitars
swg22=0.71mm good for fine work on guitars
swg26 =0.45mm pretty small - good for circuit board soldering

[AndyR]

Thanks for that :D

[Kiichi]

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?)?