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Soldering Tools

lowendblues

lowendblues

Supporting Member
Oct 8, 2004
3,484
4,727
Ohio
#1
Been playing bass for 45 years and never really took the time to learn how to solder.

Looking to buy the tools and learn. I was wondering if you kind folks could point me in the right direction as far as what I need. I can do simple things, but I'm looking for a good iron and dont know how many watts I need and what type of solder ect.....
 
#2
lowendblues said:
Been playing bass for 45 years and never really took the time to learn how to solder.

Looking to buy the tools and learn. I was wondering if you kind folks could point me in the right direction as far as what I need. I can do simple things, but I'm looking for a good iron and dont know how many watts I need and what type of solder ect.....
Click to expand...
Weller brand irons are the main ones..There are many that can do the job. I bought a small kit TK Soldering irons, never heard of em, but just needed something that had all the stuff in the kit. This is a variable temperature one with a thermostat on the iron itself, up to 450 degrees. But it came with solder, tip tinning, extra tips in different sizes, flux and a solder-sucker which pulls excess solder off your work while it's hot..Certainly handy if your new to soldering..You really dont need anything too fancy.... Besides guitars, i also like model trains, so this works well, for me anyways..The whole thing was under 30 bucks at amazon.
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#3
for starting you need some rosin, solder wire and a soldering iron. and a wire cutter, if you don't already have it. down the road you might appreciate some clamps or something like this.

a reasonable soldering iron is a 60W. on the higher end of spectrum are soldering irons that hold a specific configurable temperature. I'm very content with my Hakko FX-888D, it was chaper and better than the comparable Wellers.

as for solder, if you don't strictly want it lead-free, leaded solder is easier to work on. 60/40 or 63/37, doesn't matter much.
 
#4
45 watt works well for me and that’s what I would recommend. Nothing fancy to start with just a pencil type iron.
That’s what I started on when I started electrical school in 1979 and I’ve never changed to anything else. Watch some YouTube videos and practice on some scrap wire or old components.
It’s easy to learn, but at first, it seems a bit intimidating
One thing I would highly recommend is getting a heat sink.
Good luck and have fun!
 
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#6
Soldering is a substantial part of my everyday job. Here are just a few hints from my experience:
  • Your goal is to transfer the necessary amount of heat to the parts being soldered in a short time.
  • Wattage is not as important as a wide enough soldering tip. For working on an instrument's electronics, I would choose an at least 5 mm wide chisel-type tip.
  • During soldering, keep the tip clean and wet at the same time. Burned flux residues will hinder heat transfer, and a good amount of solder is needed for transfer. This means that you should clean your tip before soldering (not after!) and immediately apply some solder to keep it wet at all times.
    Do not save on solder.
  • If a lot of solder accumulates on the tip, it is often convenient to "knock it off" by hitting your soldering iron on a soft edge instead of wiping the tip on a sponge all the time.
  • Get soldering wire with a flux core, about 1 mm thick would be ideal. If you can get it (RoHS restrictions), leaded solder is easier to process, but it is not necessary.
  • I would prefer any cheapo no-name soldering station off Aliexpress over a soldering iron that plugs directly into mains, regardless of brand name.
 
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#7
Don't spend a lot. All you need for occasional bass or guitar mods is a 35-45w iron with about a 3/16-1/4" wide tip, some good small diameter rosin core solder, and a damp sponge. Wet paper towel strips can make great heat sinks for irregular use.

You don't really need variable temperatures, soldering stations, special soldering tools, etc...

Barry, soldering since '75.
 
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#8
If you have a Harbor Freight close by they have 2 soldering stations available. I own this one and can say it works very well:

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And if you want to spend a little more money they recently added one with a digital readout but I've never used this one:

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Plus they have some a couple of accessory kits which include desoldering pumps (a must have in my opinion if you're resoldering a bad connection)

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#11
Your work surface is probably going to meet a few small blobs of hot solder and flux. Use an a proper surface or put down some surface protection. If you solder around carpet you're guaranteed to accidently knock the iron onto the floor and ruin the carpet. In the classroom I was told to never knock the excess solder off the tip, it's dangerous to have burning hot solder flying around - but I do it all the time ;-)
 
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#14
TheReceder said:
Inexpensive solder station with temp control by weller. (wlc100)
I'm a fan of the soldering iron brass wire cleaner. Makes things a little easier.


View attachment 7012719View attachment 7012722
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Does it have to be brass? I replaced mine with a simple steel whatever it's called (you know, the ones you can buy in any houseware shop, for cleaning pots and the like).
 
#17
Get a flathead or chisel tip. The conicsl one is useless. Get one around 4 or 5mm wide to heat up the back of pots when you wire up your basses. Use leaded solder if you can.

Tin the tip,heat up the parts, feed the solder from the other side. Don't put solder on the iron.

The Gibson YouTube channel has good videos on changing pickups. On thegearpage there's a pinned thread on soldering.
 
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#18
Boneless said:
Does it have to be brass? I replaced mine with a simple steel whatever it's called (you know, the ones you can buy in any houseware shop, for cleaning pots and the like).
Click to expand...
Unknown... I just know that I've had better luck with the wire cleaner than the typical wet sponge. I'm using a better weller than the one I pictured, and probably a better tip cleaner. I think the real key is using good solder, and proper tip temprature adjustment. That's why I'll always use a station over an inexpensive stand alone iron.
 
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#19
+1 on the Weller WLC100 soldering station. More than good enough for occasional guitar soldering jobs, and I've built a couple pedals with it, no problems. The tips are removable via set screw, and they have a bunch of alternate tips available, though I almost always use the snall chisel tip. Plenty powerful enough to do stuff like soldering to the back of pots. If you plan on doing a ton of this, obviously a more sophisticated device with digital readout is better, but I've had mine for around 10 years with no need to upgrade it.
 

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