Soldering guitar

[sleepy]

Hi all, im looking to wire in some new pickups and possibly replace the old wiring for a Fender Strat.
I'd like to know what type of solder i should be using and also what type (size) wire i should use.
Thx in advance

[dd842]

sleepy said:

Hi all, im looking to wire in some new pickups and possibly replace the old wiring for a Fender Strat.
I'd like to know what type of solder i should be using and also what type (size) wire i should use.
Thx in advance

Hi sleepy, and welcome to GN2!

Great question.

The following is from the quieting the beast specifications at



"..... Resin-core electrical solder ..... insulated 20 or 22 guage wire ....."

and here is a more technical (and humorous!) answer to the wiring question from GN2's ChrisK:

"Wire gauge for internal guitar wiring is somewhat moot. The pickup windings are comprised of #42 to #44AWG solid wire (mostly) that is way smaller than the smallest hook-up wire that a human can successfully handle.

A #44AWG wire is 0.05mm in diameter.
A #26AWG wire is 0.5mm in diameter.
The difference is 10 times the diameter, or 100 times the conduction area. (Gee sparky, there's like a logarithmic relationship to wire gauges just like deciBels!)

1kM (1,000 Meters) of #44AWG wire is 8,750 Ohms in resistance (gee, there could be like 1,000 meters of wire in a pickup or sumpthin').

1kM (1,000 Meters) of #24AWG wire is 87.5 Ohms in resistance (gee, a hundred times less).

So, if you have a looooooong run of 1/2 meter of #24AWG hookup wire in a guitar, the 0.044 Ohms of additional resistance is less than meaningless.


Now, the shielding effectively and the capacitance (that "other" tone control) of a given external cable is much more important. Buy a cable with a good shield (I don't know how to tell other than empirically) and LOW capacitance. Special whoopty-doopty green Vulcan copper oxygenated Ferengi ear wax plated cryogenically dewobbulated harmonically tinted, er, wire isn't of great necessity.


Some will also claim that only orange capacitors printed with black ink on a Tuesday in May during a leap year by a short woman with six fingers are truly meaningful, while others will admit to reality.


Special kinds of wire are of most use when one wants to pretend that something is vintage. If the vintage ways of doing things were the optimum ways, we'd all still be doing it them there ways. "

I hope that helps!

Dan

[pmccook1]

A shorter answer to your main question ..

I bought a 40watt "Weller Iron" from Ace Hardware, the one with the big flat head screw driver end. It works Fast and is easy to use. Go by Radio shack and get one of the cheap work stations with the spring looking holder, and the sponge in the base and a pack of the solder picks with the Heat sink clip. YOu'll need that to keep your Iron tip clean and to keep from burning your table up.
I used the .05 size rosin core solder from Ace H. It needs to say " Fine Electrical Solder 60/40 blend.

I tried the Radio shack .03 size wire and it was terrible.

Practice on a couple of pieces of wire and then go at it. I was able to solder to a circuit board with the big tip with no problem.

Happy soldering

[sleepy]

Great replies, thx guys, will help me alot .

One more thing, i hear that the soldering iron can damage the magnets in pickups, what is the best method for soldering them as itll be impossible to solder the wires without bringing the iron into close range of the pups, (thats if there is any truth in this)?.

[ChrisK]

Well, you won't be soldering the wires onto the pickups, you'll be soldering the wires coming from the pickups. A few inches away won't do much.

Just DON'T USE a soldering GUN. You know, that big thing with a pistol grip and an incandescent light bulb near its nose, and with a tip that is a loop of heavy copper wire (it's like a winding on a transformer, oh wait, it IS a winding on a transformer).

If you do use one of these and damage stuff, and then have the lack of foresight to tell us so, we WILL ridicule and laugh at you.

And then offer you $1 for the wreckage.