Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted Saturday at 14:23 Share Posted Saturday at 14:23 Yesterday, after shielding the cavities of my PJ Player Mustang bass I attempted to start to rewire it to replace the glitchy toggle switch with a switchcraft one and swap some cables about to solve the issue with the volume dropping when rolling off the tone. My soldering iron is an oldish 30W one. Using this iron I found it impossible to reflow the factory solder at all and I had to cut the wires off the switch. I tried to desolder the bare leg of the capacitor from the tone pot using desoldering braid, but couldn't flow the solder at all. I deduced that a higher powered iron is needed so I placed an amazon order for a 100W one which has buttons to adjust the power and a temperature readout, which seems to be standard now. This defaults to 350ºC and goes up to 500ºC. I found in various bits boxes, a pair of CTS 250kΩ audio pots, a 0.047uF orange drop capacitor and a pure tone socket, so I decided it would make sense to build a new loom. I couldn't remember where I stashed my push-back wire so I added some to my order. My order was delivered today. The plan is to use a standard P bass circuit, replacing the pickup ground and signal with the ground and signal out from the switch. I have now mounted the components on a cardboard template and will probably put the loom together tomorrow. I have both old tin/lead solder — which was easy to use with my old iron, and newer lead free — which wasn't, so I will try to use the lead free with the new iron. My question is - what temperature do you use when soldering? Is the default 350ºC likely to be hot enough? Is there a disadvantage to upping the temperature beyond what is needed? Also why are Americans unable to pronounce solder properly? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 14:49 Share Posted Saturday at 14:49 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said: why are Americans unable to pronounce solder properly? Don't ask me, I have no sodding idea! As to your main question, I suggest you do some test pieces and, if necessary, increase the tip temperature by a few degrees and test repeatedly until you are getting consistently good results. You might find that your new iron works with lead-free from the off. It's likely to have been made with lead-free in mind as the default since leaded solder is no longer used in new products. I retired my dad's "antique" soldering iron recently. To replace it I bought a new iron. It worked perfectly. I don't know what temperature it operates at though, sorry. Edited Saturday at 15:14 by SpondonBassed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevel Posted Saturday at 17:21 Share Posted Saturday at 17:21 (edited) 350 to 400 should do well for general use, but it does depend a bit on what you’re soldering and how thick the solder wire is. If you’re working on pots then crank it up (I use 450 or so) and don’t keep it in contact with the pots any longer than needed to do the job. Edited Saturday at 17:22 by stevel Spelling was wrogn 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted Saturday at 19:13 Share Posted Saturday at 19:13 Bigger components just need more wattage. Temperature is the same with small and large components. Here's a very good chart of different materials: https://www.kester.com/knowledge-base/alloy-temperature-chart 63/37 is the old tin/lead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted Saturday at 21:40 Share Posted Saturday at 21:40 With lead free solder you need to use way higher temperatures. 300 to 350° Celsius is for old solder with lead. 450 to 500° Celsius is for new lead free solder, which, by the way, is deep shìt. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 21:44 Share Posted Saturday at 21:44 3 minutes ago, Hellzero said: lead free solder, which, by the way, is deep shìt I can't understand why people say this. What's wrong with it? I have used it and found it just as easy to use as the old leaded solder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted Saturday at 22:03 Share Posted Saturday at 22:03 17 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said: I can't understand why people say this. What's wrong with it? I have used it and found it just as easy to use as the old leaded solder. You don't have to understand it. If it's working great for you then happy days. I didn't find it easy at all, I found lead free solder useless - it just balled up and fell off my tip, couldn't even tin with it. Leaded solder all the way for me. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 22:14 Share Posted Saturday at 22:14 1 minute ago, neepheid said: You don't have to understand it. If it's working great for you then happy days. I didn't find it easy at all, I found lead free solder useless - it just balled up and fell off my tip, couldn't even tin with it. Leaded solder all the way for me. Did you use a solder that has it's own flux? Or maybe use a dedicated flux that you can apply more precisely to where it's needed? Sorry to say, it's dead easy. Just like brazing*. * Brazing is similar to soldering but uses brass as the filler metal. It needs much higher temperatures and a gas torch is often used to achieve them. Not recommended for use on musical instruments however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted Saturday at 22:16 Share Posted Saturday at 22:16 1 minute ago, SpondonBassed said: Did you use a solder that has it's own flux? Or maybe use a dedicated flux that you can apply more precisely to where it's needed? Sorry to say, it's dead easy. Just like brazing*. * Brazing is similar to soldering but uses brass as the filler metal. It needs much higher temperatures and a gas torch is often used to achieve them. Not recommended for use on musical instruments however. Once bitten, twice shy. I'll just keep using my cored leaded solder, I'm happy with my soldering life. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 22:20 Share Posted Saturday at 22:20 Just now, neepheid said: Once bitten, twice shy. I'll just keep using my cored leaded solder, I'm happy with my soldering life. Stick with what you are comfortable with. You're an adult and you can do the risk assessment for yourself. It's probably insignificant for small scale hobbyists anyway. If you're doing it every day you might want to read up on the symptoms of lead poisoning though. Honestly, I don't find it any more or less difficult with lead free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted Saturday at 22:22 Share Posted Saturday at 22:22 Just now, SpondonBassed said: Stick with what you are comfortable with. You're an adult and you can do the risk assessment for yourself. It's probably insignificant for small scale hobbyists anyway. If you're doing it every day you might want to read up on the symptoms of lead poisoning though. Honestly, I don't find it any more or less difficult with lead free. I'm still on the same roll of solder I had when I was a kid, I think I'll be fine, frequency-wise 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 22:25 Share Posted Saturday at 22:25 1 minute ago, neepheid said: I'm still on the same roll of solder I had when I was a kid, I think I'll be fine, frequency-wise I think I may have lost more brain cells to beer than to my leaded soldering days. @Jean-Luc Pickguard - How are you getting on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted Saturday at 22:31 Author Share Posted Saturday at 22:31 I have put together the new loom using a typical p-bass circuit. I'll finish off tomorrow and solder the white wires from the pickups to each side of the switch, and then the black wires from each plus the bridge and body lug grounds to a blob on the shell of the tone pot. If it all works first time I'll celebrate with a small glass of Bushmills 10 year old single malt. if not I'll have some troubleshooting to do. I found that the new iron made it much easier. I didn't have to hold it on the components so long to get the solder to flow. I used the lead free as I need all the brain cells I can keep hold of. Even though the original Korean pots closely resembled CTS pots I had to get out the tapered reamer to open up the holes in the control plate so the CTS ones will fit. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted Saturday at 22:32 Share Posted Saturday at 22:32 Whoops, thread derailment/sidebar, sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Saturday at 23:09 Share Posted Saturday at 23:09 33 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said: I found that the new iron made it much easier. I didn't have to hold it on the components so long to get the solder to flow. I used the lead free as I need all the brain cells I can keep hold of. Lovely bit of wiring that, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted Sunday at 07:31 Share Posted Sunday at 07:31 I have always found that the easiest way to get old solder to reflow, is to add new solder to it. I have been using the same, 17w Antex iron since 1991, and have never had a problem with it. I have never tried lead free solder. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted Sunday at 10:05 Author Share Posted Sunday at 10:05 11 hours ago, neepheid said: Whoops, thread derailment/sidebar, sorry! That’s okay, a former president of the USA says it is called ‘The Weave’ when he goes off at a tangent, and some of his good friends who are English professors say it’s the most brilliant thing they’ve ever seen. I wonder whether he added “But they went to a different school so you won’t know them.” 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted Sunday at 17:00 Author Share Posted Sunday at 17:00 Woo hoo! The bass is back in one piece and everything is working as it should. The new switch works perfectly with no glitching. After turning down the volume a bit, rolling off the tone no longer drops the volume The puretone socket is positive and doesn't push the jack to one side as it is plugged/unplugged. The copper shielding has silenced the small amount of noise that was there. All in all a perfect result which calls for a huge sigh of relief and a small glass of celebratory Whiskey. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted Sunday at 18:30 Share Posted Sunday at 18:30 It's nice when you can get under the hood, so to speak, and fix it yourself. I like how neatly you did your wiring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted Sunday at 19:05 Author Share Posted Sunday at 19:05 I think building the loom on a cardboard template was the key to a tidy wiring job. I'm sure if I'd tried making it with the components on the control plate & pickguard it would have looked more like Worzel Gummidge's pubes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackroadkill Posted 7 hours ago Share Posted 7 hours ago On 19/10/2024 at 23:03, neepheid said: it just balled up and fell off my tip Fnarrrr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted 7 hours ago Share Posted 7 hours ago 2 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said: Fnarrrr! Bloody traumatised, min! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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