1st build junior JRM-1DC

[Simon Barden]

Touching just the solder is OK, though it is better if you can get the wire as close to the metal as you can (not always easy doing it by yourself).

It looks like you struggled to get the pot warm enough for the solder to flow smoothly, which is normally a sign of an underpowered soldering iron. Small low-wattage irons (15W-20W) are fine for soldering small components in place on a PCB, but the back of a pot takes a lot more heating up. Too low a power iron is actually worse here than too high a power. A higher power iron (50W and ideally temperature controlled) will heat up the area to be soldered quickly, before the heat has time to spread all over the back of the pot. With a low power iron, the heat spreads out all over the pot before it gets warm enough for the solder to melt, so there's far more danger of damaging the carbon track inside.

I'd take some cutters and snip off the loose ends of wires as some may move over time or with vibration and possibly ground out the signal.

[McCreed]

Good advice from Simon there about the power of the iron. It does seem counter-intuitive that "hotter" is better for not damaging pots, but Simon explained it well.

Coincidentally I just posted about soldering in another thread, so out of laziness, I will cut and paste it here.
My comment may be more relevant if you find there are issues when you test the signal path.

"Well, the important thing is that it's working!
Your suspicion about cleaning up the solder on the pot may very well have been a big part of the problem. When I see dirty great blobs of solder, it sends up red flags for me. High potential for cold solder joints or shorts. I'm not trying to be critical, just honest.

Good soldering technique takes practise and an appropriately sized iron. I've seen some jobs that could only be qualified as "art".
My skill level is far from an artform but has steadily improved over 20 years of doing it and still improving!"

The neater you can get your soldering, the less likely you are to have problems.

edit to add:
If you think you'll continue doing more soldering and building, it's worth buying a "third hand" contraption. It makes soldering so much easier.

[giacomo]

It looks like you struggled to get the pot warm enough for the solder to flow smoothly, which is normally a sign of an underpowered soldering iron.

Yes, unfortunately it's a cheap low-watt iron and it was hard to melt the solder, hope I did not break all; if it doesn't work is it easy to replace pots with new ones?

[Simon Barden]

It is very easy to replace the pots with new ones. CTS, Bourns or Alpha pots are the normal quality brands to look for but Alpha are a bit cheaper and will be more compatible with the kit knobs, as they normally come with 18-spline shafts. I'd suggest 500k audio taper pots for volume and tone.

[McCreed]

Yes, unfortunately it's a cheap low-watt iron and it was hard to melt the solder, hope I did not break all; if it doesn't work is it easy to replace pots with new ones?

Another consideration when soldering to the back of pots, is the type of tip that's on the soldering iron.
Most irons come with a conical tip (sometimes called a pencil tip) as standard. A "chisel" tip is much more efficient for pots as there is wider distribution of heat across the end of the tip, thus the surface of the pot casing. A 4mm chisel tip works really well IME.

Pro Tip: (see what I did there???)
If you can't find a proper chisel tip for your particular brand of iron, a conical tip can easily be fashioned into a chisel tip with a file. The metal used in the tips is quite soft (I think some kind of copper alloy) so it only takes a minimal number of strokes with a flat file to get it shaped to what you want.



Also, re: burning out or ruining pots with a soldering iron, I'm not saying it can't happen, but I've never personally seen it happen. And I've seen some pretty horribly messy gobbed-up soldering jobs on pots that still worked just fine (and I may even have been responsible for a few back in the early days ).

[Simon Barden]

I think I may have burnt out a pot once, but then as I never tested it before I soldered it, it may have been faulty to start with.

[giacomo]

It works!

[McCreed]

Interesting pickup mounting method!

Congrats on your success.

[giacomo]

Hi everyone, it's been a while but I completed the build!
It was tougher than I thought, there are many flaws and imperfections but I'm happy with the result:



But now I have a problem with the neck, the first three frets are unplayable, strings touch the fretboard completely, the action is high beyond the 7th fret but too low in the first frets - I tried to unscrew the truss rod to his limit, now it's a bit better but strings still touch when I play on first frets - maybe do I have to lift up the bridge a bit? Or maybe does the neck have problems(faulty)?
Also I have to raise the pickup for sure because is too far from strings but shouldn't be difficult(I hope).
Thank you for the support!

[m0j0]

Could be any number of things or a combination of all of them. Do you have a notched straight edge? Or even a long regular straight edge? It's an easy way to see how much (if any) relief you have. It sounds like you might still need to ease off the truss rod a bit more but it's better to check it rather than guess. Also, keep in mind that you want to do small adjustments and then wait as it takes a while for the strings to pull that neck up once you loosen off the truss rod. It might be overkill, but I generally like to wait 24 hours after an adjustment before I'll make another one.

Usually, if the bridge is too low, you'll get buzz or worse across most frets, but I wouldn't rule that out either. If you fret at the 1st and last fret (using a capo or two is easier for this test), do the strings ring out if you pluck between the two fretted points?

Oh, I just read that you said you adjusted the truss rod out to the limit. Well, assuming you've given it time to settle into place, I'd be checking with a straight edge. You should have plenty of relief if you've loosened it right off. If not, might be worth seeing what your options are for a replacement. Not sure how you'll go since you've finished it, but no harm in asking the question.