Soldering Pot Backs
This is part 2 of the video series on wiring up guitar electronics.
All the metal parts of the guitar need to be tied to a common ground, including the pot bodies. If you don’t do this, you end up with noisy ground problems. A good place to wire the ground is to the back of the pots.
There’s a few tricks for successfully soldering to the backs of the pots. First up is a hot iron. I’ve tried with a 25w iron, and it just doesn’t cut it. 40w works, but be sure to let it heat up for 10 minutes or so before trying. I use a cheap Radio Shack iron which switches between 25 and 40w. Also, you need to roughen up the surface of the pot to get off any oil or grease, and to give some good grooves for the solder to adhere to – I just use 100 grit sandpaper.
Wire It Up
At last, after what seems like an eternity of video editing, I’m ready to roll out this new series of videos about wiring up guitar electronics. In these videos, I demonstrate how to lay out the components, select wire, strip and tin shielded wire, solder the backs of the pots, arrange the bundles of wires inside tubing, wire up the pots, the switch, the tone capacitor and the jack.
Here’s the first part of the video, covering initial preparations, component layout and wire selection and prep.
Riviera P93, Limited Run Nearly Done?
I was just checking in at GuitarCenter.com, and it says today that the P93 is sold out or no longer available. Perhaps it’s nearing the end of its limited edition run?
Musician’s Friend still has it, with the free case. If you’ve been on the fence, now’s the time to decide. Get it while you can!
[…update November 8 – I see they’re back in stock at GC, so maybe they’re still in production…]
Ground Control to Major TOM
I’m still editing together the epic electronics replacement and soldering series of videos. Nearly done! Meanwhile, here’s a really short video on how to diagnose and fix ground connection problems in your guitar.
Relax, Take a Load Off
In this video I demonstrate how to modify a tone pot to be no load, for true bypass. The change in brightness is subtle, but worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to open up your pots and have a look – it’s pretty easy to do. But be forewarned, some pots are easier than others to put back together! These Bourns pots are a bit dodgy, as you can see in the videos. In contrast, the CTS EP086 is very nicely constructed and easy to reassemble (as I showed in How Pots Work: Disassembly and Exploration).