My input jack on one of my electric guitars has come unsoldered again. It appears as if my roommate left a straight-end cable in it and left it standing upright on the ground (no stand). I'm not interested in confronting him about the situation (I'll be making sure that my guitars are far out of his reach when I am not around in the future). I paid about $30 to have this same jack redone 6 or 7 years ago. I have opened up the input jack area and confirmed that I have a loose lead- there are clearly two 'tabs'- one with a wire attached, one without a wire, and a free wire in the cavity.
Should I pay to have it done by the local shop a few blocks away? He once told me when I was considering building a guitar that he'd wire all the electronics for around $30, so it wouldn't be a terribly expensive fix if I had to guess.
I'm fairly competent with using my own two hands. Is soldering this jack myself worth considering? Anyone have success with doing this themselves? Is there a soldering iron +\- specific solder that is (or not) recommended? Any tips for doing it?

All advice/insight is appreciated.

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Posted by Patrick O Rly

y u do dis?

Member since Aug 2011

41187 posts

Posted on 2/13/14 at 6:49 pm to Hopeful Doc

It's not that difficult. From what I remember, I only really got into trouble when I applied too much heat. I definitely wouldn't pay $30 to solder one jack.

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Posted by Patrick O Rly

y u do dis?

Member since Aug 2011

41187 posts

Posted on 2/13/14 at 6:52 pm to Hopeful Doc

My dad happens to be here. He was an electrician, and also a guitar player.

He told me to put the wire and post together, and then heat them together with the soldering iron, and then put the solder against both of them. He said if you do it that way, it will flow evenly. Putting the iron on the solder gives you a big mess.

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Posted by shutterspeed

MS Gulf Coast

Member since May 2007

73847 posts

Posted on 2/13/14 at 7:57 pm to Hopeful Doc

For $30 I'm having an expert do it for me. No way I'd bother with that.

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Posted by occams razor

Lake Charles

Member since Sep 2007

389 posts

Posted on 2/13/14 at 8:20 pm to Hopeful Doc

I'm a novice luthier, worked on many guitars mostly fret leveling and set up stuff. Also have rewired a few. It's not that difficult to solder but if you have never done it I would pay the 30$ or so to have it done.

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Posted by Srbtiger06

Member since Apr 2006

29421 posts

Posted on 2/14/14 at 8:44 am to Hopeful Doc

Really simple. I modify alot of pedals and crap as well. Just remove old solder, "hook" the wire through the hole, and apply heat and solder. Just don't touch solder directly with iron. I try to not let the iron touch anything, rather let the iron "pull the solder" to the joint. Tough to explain but when you do it you'll see what I'm talking about.

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Posted by SUB

Silver Tier TD Premium

Member since Jan 2009

26337 posts

Posted on 2/14/14 at 9:21 am to Srbtiger06

$30 sounds like a good deal IMO. Soldering is not as hard as it seems, but it does take a little practice to get consistently good at it, and a cheap soldering iron can cause problems. If you plan on doing a lot of soldering in the future, buy yourself a good soldering iron ($50-$100) and practice on some junk electronics.

If you don't plan on doing much soldering, $30 is more than fair and will save you time and money.

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Posted by Hopeful Doc

Member since Sep 2010

15388 posts

Posted on 2/14/14 at 2:29 pm to Hopeful Doc

Against most of your better judgment, I am happy to say that my new Weller 8200 soldering iron did the trick, and my output is back to normal (though I'm pretty sure that the solder is made out of whatever they put in popcorn at the movie theaters. And my lungs are probably full of cancer).

Unfortunately, my Floyd Rose has decided to drop my tuning by about 1/4 step overnight