Hey good people I am going on vacation in two weeks and I plan to disassemble and repair my Hartke 3500 bass amp, which currently has two broken potentiometers. They were broken when the rack cover fell off (wasn't secured properly) and hit the knobs, snapping the tube preamp and main volume shafts off right down to the pots. I have parts coming from hartke...one is a 50kb taper and the other is a 10kb taper pot. I am only a little nervous because I have never soldered directly to a pcb before. I've only ever soldered connections in the control compartments of guitars. What does the entire proscess entail? Do I have to remove the entire board from chassis and flip it over to get the old ones out? I assume they are soldered though the board. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Here's some pics. thanks peoples
I need some advice soldering new potentiometers to a PCB
- Thread starter owwmyfoot
- Start date
mshilarious
Banned
This could be a tricky job, but it looks like there is only a bottom copper layer, so the holes won't be plated through. I think. That makes it a little easier. You will need to remove the board to access the bottom, it seems.
You'll need some desoldering braid or a desoldering tool, or maybe both. If you can access the old pot pins from above, cut them. That is, cut the old pots out. It's much easier to desolder one pin at a time. But most of all, be careful not to lift any traces when you remove the old pins. If the solder joint isn't completely hot and you trying to move a pin, you can tear a trace right off.
You'll need some desoldering braid or a desoldering tool, or maybe both. If you can access the old pot pins from above, cut them. That is, cut the old pots out. It's much easier to desolder one pin at a time. But most of all, be careful not to lift any traces when you remove the old pins. If the solder joint isn't completely hot and you trying to move a pin, you can tear a trace right off.
mshilarious
Banned
The pin will slide around without any force. That's hard to tell when all three (or more) pins of the pot are still attached, but if the pot is cut out first, it's much easier. Sometimes it's possible to completely desolder a hole with the pins intact, other times (like with tight plated-thru holes) it's difficult. If you have an expensive desoldering tool, you can do just about anything, but with the cheap stuff, cutting out a broken part is safer.