DID I JUST FRAG MY RIBBON CABLE????

[ViperDoc]

I bought a beautiful P24 about four years ago and I've played it only a few times. WHY? Because the volume pot started shorting out when I tapped on it, and then it stopped working. So I pulled out another sword from the scabbard and left it to sleep until today. I figured, how hard can it be to solder in a new volume pot?

So I charged up the iron, labeled and snipped a few wires, went in to judiciously remove the leads on the lugs and saw a particularly undesired wisp of fume. I pulled the iron out and saw that I'd "warmed up" the piezo ribbon cable. I MEAN, WHAT THE ACTUAL F@$#????

AM I DOOMED???

CAN I ALSO SHARE THAT SOLDERING IN A GUITAR CAVITY IS REALLY QUITE AN A$$PAIN???

I need some flux to get my iron tip working better, so I pulled out early. A new PRS volume pot is ready and waiting. What should I do?

 

[bodia]

Wire it up, and plug her in. You might be ok! Or, your f@cked and this sword goes back in the rack!

 

[Boogie]

Nah, I think you’re ok. Unless you plug in and get humpback whale sounds, then you’re screwed.

 

[alantig]

Send it to me. I’ll take care of it, give it a thorough testing and report back.

I am backlogged, so it may be 2 or 3 decades.




I think you’re probably fine. Like the others said, plug it in and see what happens.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Bummer.

The good news is that if you did frag the ribbon cable beyond use, you’ll have still improved your piezo acoustic tone by 100%.

 

[ViperDoc]

AND SHE LIVES!!!

I put on my big boy pants, rewired the pot, closed this baby up with a new piezo battery and plugged it in. She works beautifully. The volume pot is now fully functional and the piezo (breathing a sigh of relief) works perfectly. Soldering is an art, it took me a few trips to the hardware store to get my iron (and my brain) working properly. The flux was key.

I extended some of the ground connections because they were soldered way tight to the main wires originally. The knob was also loose on the shaft, so I shimmed it with a stripe of electrical tape. You'd never know it's there.

Now she's back in action.

Now for some Natural Science....

 

[bodia]

AND SHE LIVES!!!

I put on my big boy pants, rewired the pot, closed this baby up with a new piezo battery and plugged it in. She works beautifully. The volume pot is now fully functional and the piezo (breathing a sigh of relief) works perfectly. Soldering is an art, it took me a few trips to the hardware store to get my iron (and my brain) working properly. The flux was key.

I extended some of the ground connections because they were soldered way tight to the main wires originally. The knob was also loose on the shaft, so I shimmed it with a stripe of electrical tape. You'd never know it's there.

Now she's back in action.

Now for some Natural Science....

Natural Science......two big thumbs up! Love the Carr, too!

 

[alantig]

Outstanding!

 

[Glide-bpm]

I don't care what anyone says, even using resin core solder versus silver solder... I gotta have flux. Makes that liquid flow like a river and stick like glue when it's cool.

 

[ViperDoc]

I don't care what anyone says, even using resin core solder versus silver solder... I gotta have flux. Makes that liquid flow like a river and stick like glue when it's cool.

I started out with a dirty tip, and that's never good. Once I got the flux paste, I roasted the tip in the flux and blasted all the oxides off. Finished the tip with some 300 emery cloth and re-tinned the tip and I was good to go.

 

[ViperDoc]

And BTW, this guitar sounds KILLER!!!!