Success! First soldering job ever - Highway One P Tone Control Mod

[fourstringdrums]

Yay! I just completed my first soldering job ever, removing the Greasebucket tone control from my Highway One Precision and replacing it with a .1uf cap, which Fender uses on their Standard and '57 and '62 Reissue Precisions.

Saturday I went out and got all the necessary supplies (40w soldering station, solder, .1uf cap, desoldering braid and bulb sucker etc..) and decided to jump in with both feet today. I did my research for a few months online and recently here and was a bit nervous but I figured if I didn't just go for it, I'd never do it.

As for the whole process, especially since it was my first time, for the most part it went pretty well. However, when I first heated up the iron, I couldn't tin the iron. Solder would just blob up and slide off. Eventually the tip starting turning black, wouldn't clean, and wouldn't heat the solder. So I searched around here and found someone (with a Highway One P no less) who had the same problem. They sanded the tip and it worked for them, so I gave it a try. It worked for me as well. The other thing I did was make sure that the sponge was soaked, just in case "damp" wasn't cutting it.

For those who are interested, the only thing I had to do in order
to change out the "Greasebucket" was to desolder and remove the two .100 and .02 ceramic caps (one of which had a 4.7k resistor soldered and shrink wrapped to it) from all 3 terminal lugs, and the back of the tone pot, as well as move a jumper wire that went from the volume pot to terminal lug #3 on the tone pot and hook it to lug #1. I'm not entirely sure if I HAD to move the jumper wire, but all the schematics I saw (except for the '62 reissue schematic) had this wire placed on lug #1 on the tone pot.

Desoldering was a bit tricky when it came to removing the ground connection on the back of the tone pot for one of the old caps. I used a combo of the soldering braid and bulb sucker, and cleaned it up the best I could. There are still a few thin spots of old solder, but together with the new connection, it's still fairly clean. I found that the bulb works best on terminal lugs because the area is small, while a ground connection I need to use both the braid and the sucker. The braid was a bit of a pain because it didn't always soak up the solder and instead tending to move it around. Either that or it would fuse itself to the solder and I'd have to heat the area again to remove it. It also would get really hot and I couldn't hold it for long. But I did the best I could. In the end my connections look just like the factory connections. The only goof I made was I accidentally touched the jumper wire with the iron and burnt a tiny section of the wire casing. Woops. I was also a bit worried that I was going to fry my pot because the whole pot was getting hot to the touch, even though I wasn't leaving the iron there for very long. Soldering the cap was tricky as well because I only had two hands. I had to lay the cap down and solder the ground connection first so it wouldn't move, and then solder the lug end. I didn't like the job I did on the ground connection the first time so I removed that solder and redid it.

But in the end, everything came out very nicely for my first try. Any advice I can get about removing and cleaning up solder (especially with a braid), holding capacitors in place while soldering etc.. please, share away!

Now, for the results.. I may make an mp3 to share, but unfortunately I didn't get a "before" mp3, and I'm just getting back into bass so my playing really sucks, so we'll see about that. Here are my impressions, before and after (I'm lousy at tone descriptions, bear with me):

Before:

When I think of a P bass I think of a fat, bassy tone that can get a bit muddy in the high end if the tone is rolled ALL the way off...but just turn the tone off ever so slightly and you get nicely muted and rounded highs with enough clarity to cut through. The Greasebucket did not give me this. I honestly felt little difference between the tone being all the off and all the way on. All the way off I felt like the treble was cut but it could have been cut even more than it was and there wasn't enough "oomph" from the bass. But this is what the Greasebucket is supposed to do: Roll off the highs without increasing the bass.

After:

*angels singing*

After putting in the .1uf cap, the tone control now has a lot more range, which is pretty gradual. With the tone all the way off I get the nice bassy, somewhat muddy tone I think of when I think of a Precision with the tone rolled all the way off. Turn it up just slightly and you get the muted highs with just enough clarity to cut through as I said before. Turn the tone all the way up and the bass turns into a monster. You get a lot more high end grit and snarl, while still retaining the fat tone that a Precision is known for. It's a brighter tone of course, but it's still manageable.

Who thought that a little $1.40 cap could make such a difference?

The next thing I may do is replace the stock pups with '62 reissues..but I ask everyone, is it worth it?

I was also wondering how much difference the type of cap would make. Like I said, I just bought a generic cap from Radioshack. Would a genuine Fender cap or an Orange Drop make that much more of a difference? I'm planning on ordering a new vintage bridge to replace the BAII and I thought I'd order a few other caps while I was at it if it was worth it. That will help me practice my desoldering/soldering as well.

[JMDT]

Learning to use a soldering iron is on my to do list.

The 60's custom shop pickups are definately worth it, MUCH better than stock.

[Bassamatic]

Congratulations! Some advice -

The tip wouldn't tin because it was oxidized. It is OK to sand it to remove the crud, then re-tin it.

The sponge should be only damp, not wet. It's job is to remove the crud JUST BEFORE soldering. You wipe the tip just before you solder, not afterwards. If the spong is WET, it doesn't remove the crud and can also cool the tip down too much so is is not hot enough.

Remember - You want to heat the parts so the solder flows onto them naturally. Solder should NOT look like a ball or blob, it should flow around and onto the part like shrink tubing, etc. You put a little solder on the "clean" tip, and then you use this little bit of solder to heat the connection. Then you touch the solder to the connection so it flows onto the parts. You will see that the solder actually moves onto the parts - it follows the heat. BUT - don't over heat and don't move the parts until they cool down for a few seconds, or you can get a "cold" solder joint that looks OK but is not making good contact.

More solder is not better. The mechanical part of the connection should be made by the wires being crimped onto the terminal etc. The solder is only to ensure electrical connection - it should not be holding the parts together.

Have fun!

[playibanez]

this makes me want to do this to my jazz so much more.

im glad it went smooth for you!

[fourstringdrums]

Originally Posted by Gio S

Congratulations! Some advice -

The tip wouldn't tin because it was oxidized. It is OK to sand it to remove the crud, then re-tin it.

The sponge should be only damp, not wet. It's job is to remove the crud JUST BEFORE soldering. You wipe the tip just before you solder, not afterwards. If the spong is WET, it doesn't remove the crud and can also cool the tip down too much so is is not hot enough.

Remember - You want to heat the parts so the solder flows onto them naturally. Solder should NOT look like a ball or blob, it should flow around and onto the part like shrink tubing, etc. You put a little solder on the "clean" tip, and then you use this little bit of solder to heat the connection. Then you touch the solder to the connection so it flows onto the parts. You will see that the solder actually moves onto the parts - it follows the heat. BUT - don't over heat and don't move the parts until they cool down for a few seconds, or you can get a "cold" solder joint that looks OK but is not making good contact.

More solder is not better. The mechanical part of the connection should be made by the wires being crimped onto the terminal etc. The solder is only to ensure electrical connection - it should not be holding the parts together.

Have fun!

Well the tip wouldn't even tin right out of the box, and it was clean. Any idea what that was all about?

I know I'll get better the more I do it, but right now all my connections look like the factory solder joints so I'm happy with that. I think from the factory there may be an excess of solder on some of the joints, and I know that none of the wires are crimped to the terminal from the factory because the one jumper I removed wasn't. I didn't crimp mine either, but if I replace the pickups I'll make sure to do that. For now though I figure if it's ok that way from the factory, than any joints I made today that are identical should be fine. If they ever give me a problem I'll redo them.

[EBodious]

hey, nice work! i am glad you got it together and it plays! you are making me want to learn to solder. and, though i haven't heard the re-issue pickup, i am sure it is worth it. when i compare my hwy 1 with my buddies '78 p, well, there is absolutely no comparison. there are probably a number of variables at play, but, electronics are sure to be a BIG part.

good job, enjoy the bass.

any thought to putting re-issue tuners on it as well?

[fourstringdrums]

Originally Posted by EBodious

hey, nice work! i am glad you got it together and it plays! you are making me want to learn to solder. and, though i haven't heard the re-issue pickup, i am sure it is worth it. when i compare my hwy 1 with my buddies '78 p, well, there is absolutely no comparison. there are probably a number of variables at play, but, electronics are sure to be a BIG part.

good job, enjoy the bass.

any thought to putting re-issue tuners on it as well?

Go ahead and go for it. I was nervous about screwing it up as I didn't practice on anything before hand, but it turned out really well I think. You just have to do your research, take a deep breath, and go slow.

I'm not going to bother putting on reissue tuners. Unless I find that these are harder to get into tune (don't have many fine increments) and don't hold a tune, I don't see any reason to replace them. I am however replacing the BAII bridge with a Highway One vintage bridge from www.basspartsresource.com

The Greasebucket and BAII are mods that I don't understand why they were put in place. Why mess with a good thing especially if they were supposed to be going for a vintage vibe with these basses?