Unsoldering the tone pot

[Neeradj]

Hey guys,

Just got me a 25W soldering Iron. Before I begin, I want to check on some things first, to make sure I'll be doing it the right way.

OK, I opened it up and the're two pots. I assume the pot under the volume knob is the volume pot and so on with the tone pot. The're a couple of wires connected to the tone pot. Do I just unsolder them all? Can I just heat up the soldering iron and place the tip on the old solder to disconnect them?

Thanks

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Unsoldering the tone pot

You want to disconnect your tone pot? It's probably connected to the first terminal (or maybe middle terminal) of the volume pot by either the capacitor itself (as in a Les Paul) or by a wire. Just unsolder the wire leading to the middle terminal of the tone pot and it's out of there! Usually easist to disconnect that wire at the tone pot rather than the volume pot. Lew

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Unsoldering the tone pot

Yeah there is a thicker grey wire leading from the volume to the tone pot, a part of it is soldered to the middle like you said, but there's also a white wire coming out of it which is leading to the capacitor. Do I just unsolder the middle wire. Oh yeah, do I just plug my new iron in, heat it up and place it on the solder?

Thanks

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Unsoldering the tone pot

Forgot to mention something else, there's also a black wire coming from a thirth hole (the other two are from the pick ups), I don't know where it's coming from but I don't think it's a pick up. Do I unsolder this one too?

 

[Artie]

Re: Unsoldering the tone pot

When you first heat up the iron, make sure you have spool of solder also. Its also a real good idea to have a small container of flux. And a damp sponge. Dip the end of the hot tip into the solder, "flash" it on the sponge, then wet it with solder. Make sure to get a nice clean coating of solder on the tip, or it won't transfer heat to whatever it is you solder/unsolder.

When you're all done, leave a big glob of solder on the end of the tip, and let it cool with the glob on there. Thats the proper way to store your new iron.