I have found the solution to all your heat shrink problems.

[Timmsie95]

...well sort of...

It's more of a heat shrink alternative, for sealing in solder joints on your ground or output, or whatever you need to seal in.
Liquid electrical tape.
It's basically a fast drying liquid rubber insulator, and you can find it at Home Depot, or any hardware store. No more messing around with tubing, trying to find the right diameter, forgetting to put it on before you solder...

I would suggest using a small cheap paint brush to apply it though, as the brush that it comes with is fairly large.
I still suggest using heat shrink to manage your long bunches of cable though.

 

[line6man]

For me, heat shrink tubing would be more convenient than dealing with that goop.

 

[Timmsie95]

I like the stuff just because there's less heat on your parts, and less chance of frying something.

 

[line6man]

I like the stuff just because there's less heat on your parts, and less chance of frying something.

Done properly, heat is not an issue.

 

[Timmsie95]

I know, but I've had a couple guitars come back from a local shop, and he had heat shrink wrapped around the jack connections, but the wire was brittle and snapped. maybe that wasn't a heat issue, but I like to be safe.

 

[Gemcutter]

:sign13: Thanks for the tip on the product. I wouldn't necessarily want to plan on using it if I had a better method, but it's good to know about it in case I come up onto a situation where I need something like that. I'm going to pick up a bottle and some brushes to keep on the shelf.

 

[Cagey]

I'm with Line6man on this one. That's just silicone caulk in jar rather than an extrusion tube. Stuff's messy and difficult to deal with, then if you need to remove it you're in trouble. Heat shrink is a LOT easier to deal with, and a LOT easier to recover from. Besides, who needs to protect their solder joints from moisture? The reason to use heat shrink is often only partly for insulation purposes. It's mostly to provide some flexible strain relief, so the wire doesn't get work-hardened from either vibration or overt movement.  What moisture resistance it provides is just icing on an already sweet cake.

Besides, there are two things that amateurs frequently use around guitars that shouldn't be within a million miles of them: silicone and steel wool. Three, if you count any kind of fretboard oil.

 

[Timmsie95]

I see your point, I was just looking to a solution for less intelligent people who burn my components.. haha. I'd prefer to use shrink tubing, myself. It also looks cleaner.

 

[Cagey]

The solution for mitigating the damage caused by "less-intelligent people" who burn your components is to stay away from those people. Let them climb the learning curve on their own. Don't worry, they'll either get there or give up. There are plenty of guitars out there to practice on where the results almost can't be any worse than the current condition. In the meantime, if you're spending serious money, stick with serious talent.

 

[Timmsie95]

I couldn't agree more!  ccasion14:

There's only one guitar tech in my area who I trust enough to bring my guitars to, if I can't fix the problem myself.
A good tech is hard to come by these days.