Dodgy solder connection - best way to fix?

AsterixTG · July 2023

Noticed that the 3-way switch on my Revstar is playing up. Had a luthier swap out the pick ups a while back as I'm not particularly confident or practised in soldering.

Neck pick up fine, but the middle position (N&B) and Bridge either stay on the neck or only works when I wiggle some of the wiring about - probably a cold joint - is it as simple as reheating the joints and just letting it resettle again? Anything else I should worry about. I have an iron that I can regulate temps on, 350C seems to be the standard setting.

Thanks in advance.

Funkfingers · July 2023

Belay warming the soldering iron until you have eliminated a few simple physical causes from your enquiries.

1) The contacts of your lever/blade switch could be dirty or corroded. Give them a bit of a clean.

2) The metal parts of the selector switch could be in physical contact with whatever screening materials are adjacent to the switch. This would short out the signal from one pickup when it is selected - either on its own or in the Both position.

3) Cheaper PCB selector switches are prone to damage from heavy handed use. Eventually, the inner contacts can become separated from the PCB tracks, interrupting the signal.

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Where are the bare screen wires from your humbuckers grounded? If these have little or no connection to ground, the pickup(s) will produce no sound (even though they are in perfect working order).

The selector switch might not be the problem.

If the selector switch does turn out to be kaput, use the opportunity to fit a better switch. You could even choose a Megaswitch and extract two more useful sounds.

robinbowes · July 2023

Not sure what the issue is, but if you do get the soldering iron out, don't hold it on the switch for too long - it's very easy to destroy the switch.

BillDL · July 2023

If it's a new soldering iron that hasn't been used before, you should "tin" it first. Turn it on and hold some rosin core solder wire against the tip. Immediately it starts melting, spread the molten solder all over the tip. This will stop it from oxidising. Clean it often using a damp sponge or similar or push the tip into a rolled-up steel or copper wire scouring pad and rotate it, then re-coat with solder. If your tip has been properly coated with solder you may be able to re-flow the solder on an existing joint and not even need to melt on more solder. For any North American readers, change all instances of "solder" to "sodder".

AsterixTG · July 2023

Thanks all - appreciate the advice and knowledge - will check and follow as advised.

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Dodgy solder connection - best way to fix?

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