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.
November 8, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
January 20, 2010 @ 10:12 am
I had a question for for in regards to soldering the ground wires to the back of the pot. My project is a Paul Reed Smith SE with one volume pot and one tone pot, both of which will be push/pull pots for series/parallel switching. With a push/pull pot, there is a round section that looks like the back of a regular pot, but the back of the pot where you would normally do all your soldering is occupied by a box that houses the lugs for the switch. I’m wondering if I need to attach the ground to the side of the round part of the pot back or if the attaching the ground the box housing the lugs would work. Here’s a picture of the pot I’ll be working with: http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/popup_image.php?pID=210&image=0
– Jeremy
By the way, love the blog. Keep it going.
January 20, 2010 @ 10:33 am
Hi Jeremy,
Good question. That’s a standard Alpha push-pull. The enclosure of the switch is electrically connected to the enclosure of the pot. You can double-check this with a multi-meter- just check for continuity between the pot shaft and that tab, and you’ll find them connected.
See the very bottom of the switch enclosure, there’s a little tab sticking out, under the switch lugs? That’s a fine place to wire up grounds – or you could use the switch enclosure itself if its easier. Just roughen up with sand paper, use a very hot iron, and be careful not to sit the iron there for too long, to avoid damaging the components.
-John
March 10, 2010 @ 6:02 pm
got alot of static when i turn the tone/volume knobs some loud buzzing but
i think you already made it clear what happened i think i over heated one
of the pots and/or fried the caps, because one of them i held it on there
for a long time because i was trying to de-stick some wires and the solder
wont melt, still wont, i held it on there for over a minute so yea i guess
ill just cut the wires off and replace the pot
March 10, 2010 @ 6:02 pm
March 10, 2010 @ 6:03 pm
you doin bro
March 13, 2010 @ 7:52 am
April 3, 2010 @ 3:18 am
Hey John,
These videos are very helpful – thanks tons. The clarity with which you provide these instructions is impressive. Kudos.
JD
April 11, 2010 @ 12:08 pm
lug, what’s your experience in bending the lug and solder it directly to
the back of the pot? I’ve seen a lot of photos on the internet with that
being done.
June 25, 2010 @ 3:41 pm
thin and the neck pickup cuts in and out when its not in middle
position(any way to test this?) ….. oh well …. first time to wire …
wish I would have seen this video first! ….. oh, and the guy at radio
shack said I should use siver solder and so I did, but its awfully thin and
seems to need to be fed a lot in order to accumulate, any tjoughts on this?
thanks and thanks for the very informative vid!!!
July 11, 2010 @ 8:53 pm
September 1, 2010 @ 9:42 am
but the jack doesnt werk, with certain positions of the cable i lose my
signal completly…any ideas?thax
October 7, 2010 @ 8:40 am
into inner part of pot. Hold pot at angle heat up lug and solder should
flow to end. Then use desolder pump to removed XS solder.
November 19, 2010 @ 2:33 pm
how long i hold it. As long as the iron is hot (i let it warm up for 10
minutes or so), it shouldn’t take long for the solder to flow onto the pot
back
December 21, 2010 @ 7:47 pm
December 29, 2010 @ 9:56 pm
pots for volume and tone?
January 1, 2011 @ 10:58 pm
a minihumbucker in place of a p90 is the wiring gonna be different? 2. if
the pickups i’m installing come with wires do i just solder the one that it
calls a ground to the pot?? i know these are stupid questions but its my
first time doing this and im scared to shits!
January 3, 2011 @ 4:37 am
Okay (taking a deep breath) … no fear, just do it! I’m off to the hardware store for some additional tools and materials. With the help of your videos I should be able to get this beauty (Vantage VS696-12, solid electric 12-string with SD StagMag -neck- and Ducncan Custom -bridge-, 2 vol, 1 tone, 3-way toggle, coil split mini toggle and phase switching mini toggle – let’s keep it simple for starters) singing again …
Kees.
(no electro-technical education or experience at all, wish me luck! 🙂 ) Thanks for the crash-courses John!
January 3, 2011 @ 8:18 am
Sounds great- Good luck!
-John
January 30, 2011 @ 4:12 pm
… and so she does! (sound good). I made a few mistakes, wired the switches wrong way around, but that was fixed easily, last hurdle would be the tone pot, which is currently working in reverse. Thanks to SD schematics 🙂
Thanks again John, for educating me on the basics. I now have the tools and the guts to take on a couple of other ‘projects’ I have lying around. I’ll keep you posted!
Kees from the Netherlands.
February 1, 2011 @ 9:53 am
Nice work 🙂 Mistakes are just a natural part of the process.
Enjoy!
John
March 1, 2011 @ 9:15 am
changed the humbuckers for Golden Age humbuckers with the 4-wire
connection. I swapped out the old pickup selector and got a Freeway switch
from Stewmac. I had to increase the size of the hole to fit the new switch.
In doing all the soldering, the back of the pots were giving me the most
problems. I don’t know if my S-iron is giving the heat output it should cuz
your solder melted much faster than mine. Any suggestions?
March 14, 2011 @ 10:25 pm
solder. i used a 40w iron, and let it heat up for about 10 minutes. the tip
can also make a difference. a really fine or narrow tip doesn’t heat up a
large surface area well. if you use a larger tip (like 1/8″), that can help.
March 14, 2011 @ 10:31 pm
to avoid ground loops (giving the signal more than one possible path to
ground), as that can cause hum. star grounding is a good way to avoid
that– wire all your grounds to a single point, and then wire that point to
the final ground target (like the jack lug). do some searches on ground
loops and star grounding and you’ll find what you need.
March 15, 2011 @ 6:15 am
shielded the cavity AND the back cover and it hasnt decresed the Hum at
all. ….whats odd though is , its a 3 way Toggle & I get NO hum in the
bridge position,yet bad hum from middle & Neck position. Doubt its the
pickup because i bought it new & used it in my last guitar for about 8
months. I was impressed by how silent it was. Now……HUM city. Im at wits
end!
June 17, 2011 @ 11:22 am
just a Humbucker, an Input jack and a 3-way switch? i’m making electring a
clasic “spanish” guitar, and i want to use only the necessary components.
¿Can i ido it? Thank you very much
September 14, 2011 @ 1:05 pm
for whatever reason has silver solder and my current iron (of unknown
wattage) won’t melt it.
September 14, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
Looks like I’m getting a better solder! Thanks anyway!
September 27, 2011 @ 12:03 pm
buying a 60W iron that I’ll only use once or twice, I just went to a local
music shop. It saves money in the long run.
September 29, 2011 @ 5:53 pm
October 2, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
October 9, 2011 @ 9:06 pm
November 15, 2011 @ 8:34 pm
November 22, 2011 @ 12:56 pm
November 21, 2011 @ 5:35 am
I bought a Bill Lawrence single Pickup and I have wired it into my strat.
So I have Bill Lawrence in neck, stock single in mid and GFS crunchy rail at bridge.
I tried to rewire things and solder (first time trying soldering) to help me understand what the wiring is about.
I took black wires from singles and black+silver from GFS, tinned them together and then soldered them to a ring tongue terminal. On another spot on that ring I soldered the black wire ground coming out of the trem cavity. I then took a piece of wire (I covered it with electrical tape) and soldered it to jack ground and to that ring. I had trouble with the black GFS wire – it is very thin. But I think I sandwhiched it between the other thicker ground wires good enough to make the ground connection.
I tested and I find that the neck pickup is working good – no noise
All other positions work with some noise (which sounds sorta like a cracked hum)
Except for the bridge position which barely has output and has same noise.
I also find that the tone pot is not working at all for any position
Do you think I killed the tone pot by overheating? or do you think it’s just a ground connection problem?
I appreciate any help you can provide – thx
December 1, 2011 @ 8:09 am
Hey Manny,
I apologize for the delay- I somehow missed your comment in my inbox “waiting for moderation”.
It is highly unlikely that you killed the pot with heat. Much more likely that you’ve got a bad solder joint or wiring mistake. I recommend you use a multimeter (buy a cheap $5 one if necessary), and use it to check that everything is properly connected. You should quickly find the problem- either an accidental short, or a broken connection.
Good luck!
John
December 1, 2011 @ 11:41 am
Hi
thx for getting back to me
I think the soldering was bad.
I disconnected the middle pu (I never use it)
and I then replaced the gfs hum with stock hum (just 2 wires as opposed to 4)
Less wires, less soldering (or at least “neater” soldered joints). tested and both work fine
thank you
December 1, 2011 @ 2:04 pm
Hi Manny,
Must’ve been a bad solder joint. Glad to hear you’ve sorted it out.
John
November 28, 2011 @ 11:49 am
November 29, 2011 @ 1:56 pm
November 30, 2011 @ 7:46 am
November 30, 2011 @ 9:05 am
December 2, 2011 @ 12:14 pm
December 4, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
December 16, 2011 @ 2:53 pm
And even worse with the spring hook plate ground wire, please help!
December 16, 2011 @ 3:09 pm
December 16, 2011 @ 11:55 pm
maybe i should change the tip from a pencil point to a flat one ?
December 18, 2011 @ 5:18 pm
December 19, 2011 @ 1:47 am
I’m trying to solder the part which is held by screws and 4 springs, they take the heat away faster, so the proper way i should do is to take off that part and solder it on a block of wood so there would be less heat loss.
THank you for the tip!
December 19, 2011 @ 6:37 pm
December 26, 2011 @ 10:20 am
December 20, 2011 @ 1:48 pm
December 26, 2011 @ 10:21 am
December 29, 2011 @ 6:55 pm
‘B157 EMG pickup buss’ that came with the pickups?
January 1, 2012 @ 8:53 pm
February 10, 2012 @ 3:32 pm
February 12, 2012 @ 10:03 pm
March 4, 2012 @ 5:35 pm
March 20, 2012 @ 10:19 am
May 17, 2012 @ 2:37 pm
March 22, 2012 @ 5:13 pm
March 22, 2012 @ 5:16 pm
March 24, 2012 @ 10:11 pm
April 6, 2012 @ 12:48 am
May 7, 2012 @ 7:28 pm
May 18, 2012 @ 11:12 pm
June 4, 2012 @ 1:44 pm
July 22, 2012 @ 11:04 am
June 25, 2012 @ 2:54 pm
August 5, 2012 @ 3:08 am
August 29, 2012 @ 12:00 am
You roughen up the back of the pot physically so the solder will “adhere to it”. Is this because there is more surface area for the solder to adhere to, or because it removes oxidization and exposes clean metal? If it is the latter, will a drop of flux resting on the back of the pot for a few minutes also do the job?
August 30, 2012 @ 3:14 pm
September 11, 2012 @ 5:00 pm
October 24, 2012 @ 5:08 am
October 24, 2012 @ 9:08 pm
November 12, 2012 @ 12:24 pm
November 13, 2012 @ 9:05 am
November 13, 2012 @ 10:50 am
November 21, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
February 1, 2013 @ 9:39 am
I thought this was disabled years ago, but it’s still there!!!! DATA stored in the HALL EFFECT of electric lines jumps time
Energy Equals Life dot com
March 8, 2013 @ 12:15 pm
March 8, 2013 @ 1:49 pm
Leave a blob of solder on it when you turn it off to help protect the tip.
I think it’s fine to sand the pot-backs, as I demonstrated in this video.
March 8, 2013 @ 12:20 pm
March 8, 2013 @ 2:14 pm
March 8, 2013 @ 2:20 pm
May 2, 2013 @ 7:35 am
I have spent too many trying to do this without roughing up the pots. That was the missing piece of information.
June 28, 2013 @ 6:44 am
August 13, 2013 @ 6:42 am
September 24, 2013 @ 4:22 pm
September 26, 2013 @ 4:06 pm
October 6, 2013 @ 4:02 am
October 24, 2013 @ 8:41 am
October 24, 2013 @ 12:02 pm
December 30, 2013 @ 6:10 am
the pot, but to desolder you have to place the tip of the iron directly on
the solder joint, is that right?
January 30, 2014 @ 9:17 pm
different ways for different brands of pick ups
February 20, 2014 @ 11:56 am
point. If it fans out, then it will be harder to push through lug holes,
especially small ones like on mini-toggles or cases where you have more
than one wire going into a lug.
March 23, 2014 @ 3:07 pm
actual pot is plated with what will help to let the solder flow onto. Is
this true? This is from another youtube video that strongly suggested
that you DON’T do this. Hmmm…
March 25, 2014 @ 11:52 am
lot of this myself and I have like 5 guitars. I wish I had you hear to
explain a guitar I have that has two humbuckers, one hum in the bridge and
a single coil stacked rail hum in the neck that is slanted. But, there’s a
5 way switch. I can’t tell how it works, but it’s cool. I wish I knew so I
could wire my two hums in my strat the same way.. Anyway, thanks for the
cool vids. Tim
April 28, 2014 @ 10:09 pm
May 11, 2014 @ 11:39 am
noob should know before ordering? Thanks!
June 11, 2014 @ 5:04 am
June 18, 2014 @ 7:12 am
June 18, 2014 @ 7:12 am
July 22, 2014 @ 11:29 pm
September 14, 2014 @ 7:03 pm
October 16, 2014 @ 1:21 pm
muddy and other times they´re ok. do you know why it is happening? it´s the
same chord at the same place on the fretboard. thanks for your attention.
October 20, 2014 @ 4:17 pm
will damage the outer strands and on an insulated wire you could cut the
insulation. I know that the wires you were doing this to were grounds but
it still is not a good idea.
October 29, 2014 @ 10:24 pm
November 29, 2014 @ 3:02 pm
As someone that does TRY to solder pots, but is afraid of damaging the
parts… how long would one need to hold a soldering iron against a pot or
switch to actually have permanent damage?
November 29, 2014 @ 3:02 pm
As someone that does TRY to solder pots, but is afraid of damaging the
parts… how long would one need to hold a soldering iron against a pot or
switch to actually have permanent damage?
December 30, 2014 @ 7:20 pm
Hi i was wondering if anybody may know. im working on a strat and had to re solder some of the volume pots. when i looked at the schematics for it i noticed some of the wires arent on the correct tab on the volume and tone pots. does this matter?
December 31, 2014 @ 12:46 pm
Sometimes, minor differences in wiring and component order can produce an equivalent circuit. In your case, I guess if it works satisfactorily, then don’t worry about it.
John
March 14, 2015 @ 1:55 am
March 27, 2015 @ 6:39 pm
of wire , why is that ? I need to learn more about this stuff
April 29, 2015 @ 8:25 am
🙂 great video bud, always helpful.
May 6, 2015 @ 2:01 am
May 8, 2015 @ 7:53 am
metal.
June 22, 2015 @ 6:49 am
July 15, 2015 @ 8:56 pm
to a month to get my pickups installed. Gonna do it myself again…but my
skills aren’t the best. Cool video.