Soldering and splicing cables together?

[andy474x]

Got in one of my SE's to fix a shorted out pot, and do some other minor mods, and ended up having to cut a couple of wires short and splice/solder in some other wires to make up the length. Is that a bad thing to do? I can't think of any reason why it would be, but there doesn't mean there isn't one. I soldered all the connections and covered everything with electrical tape and/or shrink wrap.

In a related story, I also put treble bleed caps on my volume pots - I noticed that I was losing a lot of treble when turning my volume down, didn't know what was causing it, and it never occurred to me that there just weren't bleed caps, I thought that was a standard PRS thing. But, anyways, caps added and I'm sparkling away at all volumes now. Also changed out my tone cap on the neck pickup to a .01 uF from the stock 0.22, which has really brought that pickup to life. Previously I also added a .0047 uF cap to the hot lead of the neck pickup, which cuts out some of the deep bass. Pickup has a much tighter, more articulate tone now, without being too bright. I usually set my amp up for a thick tone with the bridge pickup, so the neck can get pretty wild, and this has tamed it.

It kind of amazes me all the little tonal tweaks that can be done with a soldering iron and some cheap capacitors. Especially on an SE guitar, where it's not a big deal to mess with the wiring.

 

[mezzio]

Woohoo, something I can help with, lol.

Solder splices, assuming they're done correctly and sealed are the next best thing from just replacing the whole wire. Since you're not talking about a super long wire you're not really going to cause much of a loss in signal quality along that wire.

IMO get rid of the electrical tape and do a proper shrink wrap on it though. If you have a good solder join at your splice, just unsolder the end of the wire from the pot and slip it on that way.

 

[jimistephen]

Yeah, you'll be fine. It's not that big of a deal. You'll be fine.

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

Totally fine!

Electrical tape will work but it tends to break down a bit over time. I'd agree with Mezzio and add shrink wrap.

 

[Rookie]

If you're soldering several wires in a bundle, stagger the splices, so you don't have a kluge at one spot. Shrink wrap each, and then shrink the whole bunch. Almost invisible.
Don't twist the wires so they stick up, lay them flat to solder, makes a thinner joint.
Oh, and something I learned often. Put the shrink loosely on BEFORE soldering. Kinda like soldering an XLR and realizing you left the shell off.