Pot grounding issues

[spauldingrules]

I've tried scuffing, cleaning, etc., and I cannot get my grounds to solder and stay onto the back of my volume pot!  I have done a lot of soldering and have wired up 5 guitars from scratch before, so I know I am not the problem.  Is it possibly the pot's fault?  It is from Stewmac, and it's the first one I have tried from there - I have always used the GFS pots with no problem before.

Also, somewhat unrelated, can I solder all the grounds to a washer or something and then just solder the one connection to the vol pot (with a wire going to the tone pot) and then to the bridge, just to cut back on soldering on the tone pot?

Thanks!

TS

 

[Soloshchenko]

I had this problem. Sand the backs of them til they are completely scuffed and shinning put the soldering iron on the pot for a minute to get the thing hot as f*ck, this normally cracks it for me mate.

 

[spauldingrules]

i'll try that - thanks!

- TS

 

[GuitarBaker]

Did it work?  I am about to do the same and I can get the damn solder to stick to the pot at all.  Scuffed, sanded, fluxed - noting.  It is the las thing I need to do and I will be done.

 

[jackthehack]

Which pots from StewMac are you using? The ones I've gotten previously from them had "gray" metal backs and didn't need any treatment at all. If these are chromed back pots like the CTS ones Warmoth sells, I wind up taking a dremel to a spot on the back of each one to bare metal and then no problem. Cheap assed thin rosin core RadioShack solder works best.

 

[spauldingrules]

I ended up scrapping them and getting a couple GFS ones which I have always used before, which get a perfect solder every time.  Screw Stewmac and their overpriced garbage (I got the pots there because I use the graphtec pre-cut nuts which are great, and available many places).

 

[Funky Phil]

I have had this problem with the 25K pots supplied by Seymour Duncan in a set of active pickups.
It took AGES to burn the (whatever it is) off the back of the pots!
I wish I had just thrown them away and used some different ones.
This kind of thing drives me mad (I repair guitars for a living...but I can't bring myself to charge my customers for the extra time this sort of thing takes )
I always use CTS pots and soldering to the back of these is easy/ quick.