Metropoulos Forum

What is a good quality solder to use and does it effect tone at all?

Thanks all,

Ed

i use Lead solder all the time. I did a bit of work for a contact who has been in the industry for 40+ years and he saw my soldering with lead free and he said "jock man this is rubbish don't waste your time with that lead free shit!"

I don't use lead free any more cause of that but there are other reasons
1) Lead free doesn't flow as good
2) lead free requires a hotter temperature to do anything with it
3) You are more likely to get cold joints
4) if someone has used lead and you use lead free/ vice versa you may get a worse chemical mix up.

Silver solder MAY make a difference in a hifi amp but i don't buy it a lot of it is hype.

Kester 63/37. Avoid lead free.

As for tone, well you should be relying on making a good mechanical joint rather than the solder bridging the gap.

Thank you guys, much appreciated. And, that last comment about "mechanical" contact made me think

that's some good gear demon. I just use 60/40 i found on ebay also my mate gave me a huge reel of 60/40 so I am all sorted for the next year.

I am not 100% convinced about this silver solder malarky i did get some to compare and you know what to my ears there isn't much difference and to be honest it's a guiitar amp what makes the difference is the guage or wiring imo you use in your speaker cabinets.

As demon says it's all about the mechanical joint and my theory is if it looks good it is good. Lead free solder for instance is very dull and it looks like it will be easy to break that joint.

Lead solder at the correct flow temperature looks beautiful and shiny its all about the finer details hahaha.

Seriously though, I have a weller 80 watt temperature controlled iron when using lead free i had to have that around 350-400 and that was barely melting the stuff. For lead and working on pcbs I can have my iron set around 275 degrees and it will still melt.

For wiring my speaker cabs, sorry for going on here but this is quite important. I use 1.5mm cable or even 2.5mm mains cable as this gives me a good bass response. Lead free will barely tin that wire as the melting temp is high and if you try to solder on to a speaker tab with that the joint looks shit and well it isn't a good joint. Lead= perfect everytime.

Most of the silver loaded solders are real shitty quality, and dry pretty cold and dull.

I did have a particularly nice german made one once that was pretty expensive (darned if I can remember the brand) but the flux was so messy that I wouldn't recommend that one either.

Best avoided IMO.

I am asking me what is better. I have here at home one solder with 40% tin and 60% lead, its an old felder. or a new solder with 60% tin and 39% lead and 1%copper. both with rosin.

Which one should I use for amp wiring?

Silmaril wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:55 pm

I am asking me what is better. I have here at home one solder with 40% tin and 60% lead, its an old felder. or a new solder with 60% tin and 39% lead and 1%copper. both with rosin.

Which one should I use for amp wiring?

Personally I use 60/39/40 Rosin, never any problems with it.