I hate wiring!!!

[Rodent]

yep, jigs are great - this has been my standby for quite some time

all the best,

R

 

[scootron]

+1 You are absolutely correct on the last part. There are no ground loops in passive basses, and not even in active basses. It's not really possible.

Ground is ground, and unless you are plugging your bass into an AC outlet you cannot get a ground loop. It's a myth perpetrated by well meaning, but misinformed web sites.

ground loops occur when you have two pieces of AC powered gear, and each one has it's own ground via the AC plug, and they are in two different circuits. You connect them together with a patch cord, and now one ground is at a higher potential than the other, and current flows to the lower point, and you get hum. This is why there are ground lifts on DI outputs.

The reason you can't have a ground loop in your bass is that you only have one ground point, and that is at the output jack, which makes the ground connection to your amp. Nothing inside you bass has a higher potential than anything else, and all grounds in the bass are as good as any other.

Think of an effects box. It has a metal case, usually aluminum, and all the jacks connect to the case. This forms a closed shield. The same is true in your bass. The pot cases form part of the same ground plane as the foil they might be touching, all the way out your shielded cable.

People have been soldering ground connections to the backs of pots for as long as there have been pots!

So don't bother with star grounding... just make all your connections neatly and with proper solder joints. Star grounding might actually make some of your ground wires longer than they need be.

Back to the original question. Some pots, both the cases and the terminals are plated, and the solder wont stick to that. So you need to lightly sand or file it. Then heat the part up and melt some solder on it before you try and solder your wires. This is called tinning. You should also tin your wire ends, and start by tinning your iron tip.

Also make sure the iron tip is screwed in tight... they get loose.

And don't over heat your parts!

Help the ignorant here, please.

I am about to put a new control plate, pots, pups and jack into a project bass. The pups are passive. Are you telling me that I do not have to make any solder connections to the pot casings, despite the diagrams? And that I only have to make the lug connections? That would make life much easier. I had difficulty last time getting solder to stick to the pots, and may have damaged a pot from too much heat, if that is possible.

Or did I totally misunderstand your post?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Help the ignorant here, please.

I am about to put a new control plate, pots, pups and jack into a project bass. The pups are passive. Are you telling me that I do not have to make any solder connections to the pot casings, despite the diagrams? And that I only have to make the lug connections? That would make life much easier. I had difficulty last time getting solder to stick to the pots, and may have damaged a pot from too much heat, if that is possible.

Or did I totally misunderstand your post?

I wasn't saying that, but if you are using a metal control plate you don't have to make the connections to each pot, but something on the plate has to have ground. Usually that's the jack on a Jazz bass type setup.

Personally I would make the connections anyway. A soldered connection is more reliable than the mechanical connection, since pots and even jacks can come loose, thus breaking their ground connection.

 

[scootron]

I wasn't saying that, but if you are using a metal control plate you don't have to make the connections to each pot, but something on the plate has to have ground. Usually that's the jack on a Jazz bass type setup.

Personally I would make the connections anyway. A soldered connection is more reliable than the mechanical connection, since pots and even jacks can come loose, thus breaking their ground connection.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but you sound very knowledgeable on this subject, and I hope you don't mind another question. I recently put a bassline jazz set (active) into an old squier standard jazz I was modding (beautiful body and neck). It sounds great, except when I turn the volume all the way down on both controls, I still have some volume. Not just a little, but a fair amount. I haven't taken it back apart, but I'm guessing this means that I either miswired something or that I may have damaged a pot through overheating while ham-handedly trying to solder onto the casing. Any ideas on how I can check this? I am 100 miles from the nearest repair shop, which is one reason I was doing this to begin with.

Help?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but you sound very knowledgeable on this subject, and I hope you don't mind another question. I recently put a bassline jazz set (active) into an old squier standard jazz I was modding (beautiful body and neck). It sounds great, except when I turn the volume all the way down on both controls, I still have some volume. Not just a little, but a fair amount.

Your grounds to the one lug on the pot is missing, or you bent the lug over and soldered it to the pot case, and either the connection broke, or your pots aren't grounded.

When you turn down the volume you are turning the wiper on the pot to the lug that is connected to ground, and that shunts the signal to ground, and you don't hear anything. If that one lug is not grounded you wont turn the signal all the way down, but will instead be hearing it attenuated by the amount resistive value of the pot.

You can see the schematic here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Note how the right most lug on the pot is soldered to the back of the case, and the cases are grounded. If that one lug isn't grounded, you won't be able to turn the volume all the way off.

 

[JackANSI]

why don't the wires stick to the pots even when, the iron is hot, and I've used flux and solder?


Its kiling me i just want my bass to work again Ive just bought new flats and want to hear em.

Ive used p bass schematics too. the things just won't stick.



Also can a soldering Iron overheat and eventually stop working after a while 2 of my soldering irons don't heat up correctly so that the metal melts properly.


Any advice i don't want to spend on a pro

Also I've noticed more and more pots coming with some kind of oily or anti-corrosive coating. The most important part of soldering, besides making sure you have the right/enough heat, is making sure everything is clean; iron, parts, etc..

 

[scootron]

Your grounds to the one lug on the pot is missing, or you bent the lug over and soldered it to the pot case, and either the connection broke, or your pots aren't grounded.

When you turn down the volume you are turning the wiper on the pot to the lug that is connected to ground, and that shunts the signal to ground, and you don't hear anything. If that one lug is not grounded you wont turn the signal all the way down, but will instead be hearing it attenuated by the amount resistive value of the pot.

You can see the schematic here:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Note how the right most lug on the pot is soldered to the back of the case, and the cases are grounded. If that one lug isn't grounded, you won't be able to turn the volume all the way off.

Thanks very much for the advice. I'll work on it tonight, but it sounds like something I can handle now.