How To Solder Guitar Pickup Wires

Continue melting the solder until theres a thin layer of solder covering.

How to solder guitar pickup wires. For general wire to lug soldering 15-20W is sufficient however for soldering to the back of pots youll need at least 30W less and youll need to apply heat for so long that you can damagedestroy the pot. Knowing how to solder I would take some very small wire similar to what is there and solder the two wires together followed. Take the heated soldering iron tip and touch the wire and terminal at the same time.

You can keep a little board of wood with some slightly de-tacked double. Once the solder has flowed remove the iron and allow the joint to cool naturally. Then go back to winding.

Resist the temptation to blow on the solder to hasten the process. Temp controlled irons are quite cheap now so its probably a good investment. Figure 1 shows a standard way to wire a double-humbucker guitar such as the Gibson Les Paul.

The lazyfaster way would be to cut the wires and correctly match the hot and ground ones together solder them and then tape them up. If you are looking for solder for guitar components then you probably should pick up something with a rosin core. 2 Strats have pickups and wires installed in the pickguard and can be done away from the guitar.

Do use a soldering stand to hold your soldering iron so you wont burn yourself or your guitar. I know the right way to do it is to fish all the pots and wires out and solder the new pickup wires directly to them. Just reverse the and ground leads on the GFS pickup without disturbing the silver shield.

Helping Hands these aligator clamps on a stand are great at holding coils and wires while soldering. With your other hand bring the solder in and make the join. Unbolt the pots switch and jack socket and pull them free of the guitar.