Lollar Pickups | 3 years ago

Tone Truth is a new series from Lollar Pickups where we dive into murky topics that often confuse, confound, and complicate the facts surrounding guitar electronics. The idea is to strip back the fluff and pomp often associated with getting great tone and offer just the basic information needed to help players make educated decisions when choosing and assembling the best components for their individual needs.

In this edition of Tone Truth, we go after a common mistake in soldering technique. Often we hear customers complain of faulty components, when, in reality, it's just a bad solder job. More often than not, these situations can be rectified by simply reflowing the solder joint to establish a solid connection between the pieces.

The root cause of most cold solder joints is poor technique based on a misunderstanding of how the soldering process works. Many people simply think of solder as a sort of glue that just needs to hold the parts together and, as is the case, they just melt the solder then try to get a glob of it onto the pieces and let it dry. Because of the nature of solder's surface tension when melted, it adheres best to other melted solder as it fluidly combines with it and becomes a single solder pool. And, since the surfaces of the pieces are usually at room temperature, the solder cools down much too quickly, before it can adhere to the part, making it seem as though it doesn't want to adhere to the cool surfaces. This is why folks often say that solder is attracted to heat. While that's not completely accurate, it's also not completely disingenuous.

So, to ensure the best possible bond between the solder and the surfaces to be joined, you must heat the parts to be soldered, instead of just the heating actual solder itself. When the solder then touches the heated part, it will melt and start to form a bond with the surface of the part. Along with solder melting, so too does the rosin flux core inside the solder - which becomes highly acidic when melted, dissolving oxidization on the surface of the part to create a clean surface that allows the solder to wet into it and adhere. Then the solder pool will slowly cool and harden as the part begins to cool down, allowing enough time for a clean and strong physical bond between the solder and the base metal to have formed. This bond - as opposed to a simple "gluing" - is what allows electrons to flow smoothly through the solder joint. Without this physical mating of the two, the electrical flow can be hindered or even prevented altogether. And that is the definition of a cold solder joint; one in which the physical bond between the solder and the parts being soldered is insufficient, resulting in a lack of electrical flow.

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