I really really hate soldering, circuits, stuff...

Mr Grumpy

Mr Grumpy

Ambassador of Comings and Goings
Country flag
... :(

Even though I did a Beng in electronic engineering, I've always hated circuits and soldering; it's so horrible... &, I'm teaching a course in robotics in a couple of weeks where the students have to make robots (ok, I cheated and got kits that don't involve soldering!). It's horrible stuff.

Even though my bloody pickups did not arrive today, I thought I'd take the pickups (a Bare Knuckle and a Peter Florence Voodoo) out of my Epi LP and put the original Epis back in. Then I had a look and thought fuk that. :(

So so ugly in there:

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg

Yuck.

It's my fault of course, I was lazy and took the pickups/guitar to a shop (supposedly the best tech in this city) rather than put them in myself.

I was gonna keep the decent pickups, but I've never liked the sound of them (I didn't dislike them either, just meh.), and looking at that horrible mess, I just put the plate back on and will sell the guitar with the pickups in; obviously, I will lose the value of the pickups. C'est la vie.

When my new pickups arrive, I'll put them in the Gibson Special, I was hoping to practice soldering on the Epi, but just can't deal with this horribleness (I have no idea what's going on in that spaghetti; and, I don't want to know; it hurts my entire being just thinking about it), so I'll practice on bits of wire. How do you folks put up with soldering??? It's a repulsive thing.

Soldering, circuits, stuff like that - it's the devil's business.
 
I’ve been soldering stuff for decades. There is a certain satisfaction when you see the solder flow nicely into a joint.

The keys to successful soldering are pretty straightforward:

1. Proper soldering iron wattage and temperature for the job.
2. Clean surfaces on the items to be soldered together.
3. A clean and freshly-tinned soldering iron tip.
4. A non-corrosive soldering flux.
 
Thats pretty bad Mr Grumpy. Im gonna let ya all in on a trick i developed when installing pickups with single lead wires. Ok so the braided ground is a pain in the ass to solder to ground. so i developed a method of my own.Slip the braided ground back a bit. Take a small nail or dinky probe of some sort and lift the braid off the lead wire sheilding,take a chunk of old style cloth pull back wire and slip a bared end under the lifted braided shield. then solder that. then you have a much easier ground lead to solder to a pot. You Welcome :)1582382245695353479708.jpg15823823339942112780823.jpg
 
JohnnyGoo said:
Thats pretty bad Mr Grumpy. Im gonna let ya all in on a trick i developed when installing pickups with single lead wires. Ok so the braided ground is a pain in the ass to solder to ground. so i developed a method of my own.Slip the braided ground back a bit. Take a small nail or dinky probe of some sort and lift the braid off the lead wire sheilding,take a chunk of old style cloth pull back wire and slip a bared end under the lifted braided shield. then solder that. then you have a much easier ground lead to solder to a pot. You Welcome :)View attachment 38777View attachment 38778
Click to expand...

I've often wrapped a piece of scrap capacitor wire around the braid and soldered it in place, in much the same way...
 
For me, it requires patience, a clear head (a good nights sleep), tin everything, and clean the soldering tip a kajillion times during the process. It is extremely satisfying.

I love the lead fumes. It makes my brain tickle.

Oh, Wellers are awesome.
 
Last edited:
Another trick I use is a single point ground design. No soldering to pots. All ground leads return to a single point (OK, 2 points in my design, but a common screw to the ground plane in the upper center of the electronics bay in the pic). Learned this working on megawatt radars for the Navy, you don’t want return to ground current flowing throughout the steel ship.

Not really an issue at these low power levels, but its the principle that counts for me. Also use copper shielding as the overall ground plane, that grounds the pots themselves.

DC233106-8A99-430C-BC80-8C2EF3D97B96.jpeg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top