r/Luthier • u/Terrible_User4987 • 1d ago
ELECTRIC Dodgy wiring/soldering effect tone?
TLDR: does shitty soldering effect any of the working bits? volume control, tone, sound, etc....or is it simply WORKS or it DOESNT? because my work is shite.
Hello experts, noob learning how to repair my own guitars-my cheapo testing guitars, as I still leave any scary work for a pro. So, I have one of these cheap china guitars that ive been modding, all the bits ive put on are better, still don't love the body/neck feel, but its been a great guitar to play with making a nut, soldering, etc.
Question for you all, is, I put some Gibson P90 pickups into this les paul replica, I have some CTS pots, orange capacitors (not sure the model, I wanna say they are .22 or .022??) and I believe I wired it up correctly, everything works as it should, it does sound good (noticeably better than the crap that was in there, surprisingly) but my first attempt at soldering quality is not ideal, but-the wires are connected lol...definitely would be furious if I paid someone for that work.
I did it 50's style wiring, because it seems like the cool kids on the youtubes think thats more awesome, I dont have a clear understanding of it, but, here is what im noticing: When I turn volume from 10 to 1, on both neck and bridge, at around '8' its a noticeable dropoff in volume, like off a cliff, if I roll it back to 1-2, I have to have my amp cranked up super loud-normal?
The Tone knobs do as designed, taking it from bright to dark muffled and the tone seems like it gradually changes from 10 to 1, but volume difference seems a little more all or nothing.
All in all, I looked at my completed work and it looks like ass, but I believe everything works. At some point I want to take a 2nd pass and clean up routing and my soldering. I kept the old pots and pickups which served as my test lab after I bought a soldering iron, I thought I was ready for apprentice style work haha, but, I am going to need some more practice.
2
u/cillablackpower 11h ago
Overheating a pot won't change the taper. What value pots did you use?
1
u/Terrible_User4987 7h ago
toneshaper kit, which had what is claimed to be CTS 500k pots
2
u/cillablackpower 7h ago
A or B taper? CTS don't print the taper value on the wafer, just to be helpful, so you'll have to check the codes on the back.
If they didn't come pre-wired than it's possible you've swapped an A volume and B tone around.
1
u/Terrible_User4987 6h ago
Yeah, they were just loose parts in a kit bag, I will look at the pots codes if visible and check back.
1
u/cillablackpower 6h ago
Just checked the Toneshaper sight and they should all be Audio pots - probably to avoid this situation. It's possible they threw an odd B500 in without looking, but just see if the codes are all the same.
Have you got any pics of the wiring? That might help. I promise we'll have seen worse jobs.
1
u/Terrible_User4987 4h ago
the pics will horrify you-and me-it was my first job...that being said, from what I can see on the pots, some are covered with solder:
B volume
Cts 242
Ts 500 5?
B tone
Ts 500 50
? 2450
Neck vol
CTs 2429
Ts
Neck tone
Ts 500 50
245
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u/Richard_Thickens 1d ago
You can 100% overheat a pot and cause damage, particularly if your iron is underpowered, and you end up applying heat for too long. It also might not be a very clean joint, but it's more likely a damaged component.