Cagey said:
I'm not saying ground loops aren't real, they are, but they don't exist inside guitars any more than table saws exist inside puppies.
it's funny how jack CB and cagey are all professionals, smart and educated and say there is no such problem in a guitar as a ground loop and some people must argue...
wattage can be converted into btu's and energy is never lost it's only transferred, if a part has a 2 watt ratting it can dissipate 2 watts and maintain a stable temperature. above 2 watts the temp will rise and not find point where dissipation equals input because it cant radiate heat to the air and other parts as fast as heat is converted from electricity the temperaturte rises unchecked untill failure, cagey argument holds water but there are other factors involved, watts dont point to a specific temperature and it's presumably the temperature that causes the failure whether it's from electricity passing through the traces or a soldering iron. i never took a class on thermo dynamics so i cant elaborate on what must be known to determine temperature but yes it is posible to have a hi power device attached to the pot and have it never fail like if it's very cold outside or if much of the heat is dissipated to the air directly and not to the pot as the temp will not be enough to destroy it. and he also elaborates that it is the traces and wiper that have the low rating.
watts is a power measurement and is used in electricity as well as acoustics, and thermal measurements and is technically correct for any sort of power measurement but less commonly used in some feilds. watts can be use as a thermal measurement but is not a measurement of temperature, it's a measurement of thermal power like btu's.
as far as which iron to use and how to use it depends on skill. the most damage i have done to pots was done with a 15 watt iron an old one that'd barely reach the melting point of the solder, it takes soo long to get it hot that the heat spreads through the whole pot and it goes bad, not that you cant use a 15 watt iron im just saying dont use
MY 15 watt iron as it's a POS. 25 watts is normally enough but if you are ready with everything when you need it i like a 45 watt iron. it gets it hot fast and gets the job done asap. less time on the pot means less chance of damage as long as you never get it too hot with a too large iron you need to regulate the heat by not holding it on the part too long, heat it till the solder melts and remove heat youre done! more power means the heat will be more localized and less total energy is put into the part so it therefor will dissipate out of the part in less time, and much of the part will never see the higher temperatures.
the concept also works in welding, aluminum tends to take a while to cool as all the welding heat is dissipated into the material and it is difficult to get it hot enough. welding it with lower power often takes even longer to cool to the point that you actually soften the part requiring further heat treatment while more amps and faster welding cools faster and gives a stronger part but too many amps and welding too fast will crack the part. high temperature alloys take few amps to reach their very high melting point and little time to cool because the lower heat dissipation rate means the heat stays where you are welding more or less, and less total energy enters the part.
but if you have stainless steel or plastic pots you need to ground the guitar somehow, yes it is posible to solder to stainless steel but you go and try it with an iron and electrical solder and tell me what kind of results you get. i recently rewired a strat with bourns pots and used a large eyelet and it was neet and easy and i wondered why ive tried making the wireing look like the oems all these years.. it is really kind of a pain to do the grounds on the back of the pots.
and lowering them as needed. It doesn't matter how good your soldering technique is if your tone and volume pots only seem to have two settings... :laughing7:
