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But essentially you need about a 40w/50w iron ... and I prefer pointed, needle tips. Thse are dirt cheap on the flea bay and you pretty much can't go wrong.
I have a hatred for lead-free solder, and not much love for 'eco friendly' fluxes ... but lately I have been using Ecosol 60/40 tin/lead multicore solder with pretty good results ... though it smell like burning old moccasins! ICBM swears by the high silver content Lead free sold by Maplin ... and I've been trying that too lately. I have to say it's very good ... but quite expensive.
Whatever solder you use ... you will need a wet sponge ... or one of those nice 'metal shavings' tip cleaners.
The secret with soldering is good heat transfer ... so my routine is: heat iron, clean tip on sponge or tip cleaner, 'tin' the iron tip ... then clean it again. Oxides stop good heat transfer.
Next, always try to make a good physical attachment of wires before you solder them. Twist two pieces of wire together and solder rather than just laying them together and expecting the solder to do the work. Loop wires through pot and switch tags. And with new pots DON'T use abrasive on the backs before soldering to them. They are most often pre-tinned and you will be undoing that.
Heat and apply solder to the work pieces not the iron tip (hoping to transfer the solder) ... though a little fresh solder on the tip again helps with the heat transfer.
Good soldering looks shiny and regular, poor soldering looks dull and porous. If in doubt do it again
Watch out soldering some small components as you can over heat them ... I have an old crocodile clip that I put on the wires out of sensitive components to act as a heat sink. It's mostly transistors and diodes that cause a problem here ... not found in simple pickup installations ... but it's worth getting into the habit of watching how much heat you apply.
If you intend to remove and replace pickup covers you will need a much bigger (100w) and more brutal soldering iron ... you will find a description of that procedure in one of my other threads here.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
There are very few bad irons about ... it's not worth spending too much.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
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I despise lead free solder too. It needs extra heat to flow, and as a result more care needs to be taken to prevent lifting pads. Plus you really need separate tips for leaded and lead free solders as the fluxes really don't mix. And lastly the fumes off lead free solder are pretty nasty and prolonged exposure is not good for you.
Cheers
John
See, i know i have done this before and its worked really well. I generally use CTS pots now and there is no need but the alpha's i used to get were impossible to solder to without doing it... although i have since used other alphas again and they are fine
Generally the pots that don't need it have quite a matt surface, others are much shinier and nothing will stick. I have quite a selection of irons and tips too so i know its not that.
I still say if you are struggling to get those wires to stick then you may as well run it over some wet & dry to key it. may not be ideal but it does work
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Oh .... by the way, with me, if the solder doesn't like the pot back .... I bring out the 100w iron ... I know it's like bringing a Vulcan rotary cannon to a fairground shooting range ... but the merest touch of that bad boy scares any pot into submission (I only use it for a fraction of a second ... otherwise it may cause a bit of internal overheating - or create a wormhole to Narnia).
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
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Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message