Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 The output socket went a bit hit & miss on my CIJ mustang, cutting out when the cable was nudged. Rather than getting a cheapo no-name socket from maplin I went on ebay & hit the buy-it-now on a P Bass rewiring kit consiting of a Switchcraft socket, pair of CTS pots, sprague orange drop capacitor and some vintage-style cloth-covered wire. Last time I did a bit of soldering I had a terrible time getting maplin's lead-free solder to work on the back of pots and although I ended up with something that worked, it looked like a modern sculpture so I tracked down some proper lead/tin solder (from clas olsen in Croydon) and put a new tip in my iron. Result: it was embarassingly easy using proper solder - this is the neatest rewire job I've ever done and the bass worked perfectly first time when I put it together & I plugged it in. I'm not sure whether the cool orange-drop cap improves the tone at all - the bass already sounded good with the old bits and still sounds good. The pots feel much smoother and don't crackle like the old ones and the new socket feels like it'll last forever. I wish I'd done this before - its a great upgrade for MIJ/CIJ fenders or any other bass with cheapo wiring/ passive electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weird War Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Nice work, glad it's worked out well. I think the pots and wiring are the weak spot on the otherwise excellent Jap Fenders, but really cheap to sort out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Damn this new lead-free solder! I've been having the same probs...Clas Olsen you say? Ta for the heads-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7string Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 The back of pots always seem to need a scratching with a file or something so that the solder adheres to back of the pot. Swapping out the pots, cap and input jack is a great, low-cost way of improving a bass. The cloth-covered wire (also known as push-back wire) is the original Fender stuff and looks very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebeat Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Lead free solder needs a higher output, temperature wise, soldering iron...that's why you've been having problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Heeley Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 [quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='574618' date='Aug 19 2009, 07:34 PM']I'm not sure whether the cool orange-drop cap improves the tone at all...[/quote] It's an emotive debate I think there's a lot of daft mojo associated with spragues, orange drops, bumble bee vintage old stock resistors at $45 a go, there's more than a toouch of Placebo hearing going on if you can tell an improvement in tone quality. Maybe the rate of change of tone is smoothed using higher quality components but can different types of caps really be picked up in a bass guitars frequencies? Not by my ears. The basic good quality pots though is a no-brainer - a scratchy pot irritates the hell out of me. What bugs me is the price difference between cheap and decent pots comapred to selling price of a reasonable guitar is so minimal that I wish they just used better quality pots from the outset and charged a tiny premium to cover it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted August 20, 2009 Author Share Posted August 20, 2009 [quote name='thebeat' post='575030' date='Aug 20 2009, 06:12 AM']Lead free solder needs a higher output, temperature wise, soldering iron...that's why you've been having problems.[/quote] Strange that Maplin only sell solder that doesn't work properly with the irons they sell. I even bought a new 30 iron from there when I had problems with my 25W one and it still didn't help with the unleaded solder. I've also saw Tin/Lead solder for sale in B&Q last week, but I don't know if its as good as the [url="http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Product.aspx?id=134361262"]60/40 Tin/Lead stuff[/url] I got from clas ohlsen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 I bought a dozen paper-in-oil caps from a guy in Sweden for about £6 - Later sold 10 of them for £4 each I put PIO caps in any passive bass that I get - may be mojo, may be whatever but I do prefer them. I was using the big orange fellows before that take up half the control cavity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebeat Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 [quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='575069' date='Aug 20 2009, 08:22 AM']Strange that Maplin only sell solder that doesn't work properly with the irons they sell.[/quote] ....don't get me started on Maplins...bunch of twats sold me USB/digital interface dongle that almost set my f'ing flat on fire...when i let them know about it,they couldn't have cared less...doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they sell lead free solder without the irons that reach a high enough temp to melt lead free solder. You should invest in a bench iron with a variable output if you do a lot of soldering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFRC Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 i have about the cheapest iron i could find and use maplins lead free stuff. never had a problem, you have to get the components hot first s bigger ones for longer. like when welding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.