How to Solder Guitar Electronics | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep. 20 | Thomann

Easy guitar wiring fixes, pickup or volume pot swaps, sorting out ground issues: it all comes down to one thing. Soldering. Let's learn how to use a soldering iron.

Enjoy Guitar Tech Tips and let us know if you have any questions in the comment section!

Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:34 The basics
1:17 How to hold the iron and the solder
1:30 Different types of wires
1:54 Proper solder joint
2:45 Gibson style metal braided wires
4:43 A tip: take photos of the wiring

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[diode]

Been waiting on people for over 8 months to swap my pickups..After watching this, im going out in 10 minutes to buy a station and change everything myself. Thank you :D

[Berlt]

my solder kit arrived today. thats scary that at the same day you doing a video about this. thank you Kris

[jeffphillips]

Chris, I appreciate all the videos you do. Electronics has always been the hardest for me (at least doing a good clean job of it) I am a tinkerer. I buy cheap guitars, sub $200 and put massive upgrades in them. I do it as a hobby. Keep doing what you are doing because it keeps my interest!

[BertWald-wppz]

Really useful for those like me with pickup-swapitis. My soldering tends to be a bit messy and this video has helped me see how to improve.

[fireball]

Very thorough, with excellent close up video shots. At 4:10, you hold down the braided wire with metal tweezers. Just a tip for people who might be as clumsy with soldering as I am when holding a piece down: use a wooden popsicle stick with one of the curved ends cut off so that it's square. Wood doesn't conduct, so it gets a hot joint on the back of the pot without absorbing heat from the soldering iron. It also doesn't slide around the piece being soldered or draw solder to it.

[adamdixon]

This helped tremendously. Thank you again. I do all the set ups and repairs on my basses now. Cheaper and really isn't too difficult. Just make sure you set up properly before hand and have everything ready to go and no issues should accure

[muxallopeniot]

Chris you did a really great job with this video. From basic soldering to soldering the guitar pod. I think this is gonna be a really great series.

[hiseminencetheholymacdiarmada]

I just finished restoring my 91 Gibson SG, from the bare wood body up. Finnish came out BEAUTIFUL, like GLASS. The electronics, on the other hand, while operative are very sloppy looking. So I’ve since ordered new pots and capacitors and I am here to learn!

[AlwayzTired]

Thank you for making this. I’ve spent so much money over the years for something I could just do myself.

[welfiblablabla]

I once replaced a pickup in my guitar myself, the first and (until now) last time I ever soldered something.
To my surprise it still works to this day 😅

[romanmeyer]

Thanks Chris for the video. I was able to fix my son's bass guitar after watching it.

[boomerbassmeme]

Remember kids: quack the alligator clips to ensure you have a solid ground to avoid 60 cycle hum!

[patfix]

Thanks Chris! My first soldering experience half a year ago was fixing my guitar/instrument cable. Fixing it was cheaper than buying another new cable.

[Steven_SK]

This is my latest thing to learn. Thanks for the tips Kris!

[madatlas]

This is fantastic, very well broken down to a beginner level. Thank you so much!

[aiRxShop]

I build FPV drones on tiny 16x16 sometimes 20x20 electronic parts and use 700° F temps so I don’t have to keep the solder iron on very long. I guess it can be risky if you don’t know what you’re doing and leave it on too long, but after building so many drones it’s been great practice for when I work on my guitars.

[johnyork]

Man, thank you! This is just what I need!

[Blonde_jawn]

Wow, I just started learning welding and sodering but have been playing guitar and bass for so long this is very beneficial for me. Thank you.

[bradshannon]

Thanks! I was soldering at 450 degrees and burning tips too quickly. I find it a bit harder to solder P/P pots due to the small connection holes so I am going to try a 6-pin wire clip on those. That would make sense to me if I decide to change the function of the pot I can just follow the color code of the wire to pin. Great tutorial.

[boynamedlen]

Glad I found this as I intend to replace the pots on my new Squier bass. I'll definitely refer back to this video when I have everything I need and it's actually time to do it.