ilovefuzz.com

Ahhh the frustration.

Turns out I can't even make a bass fuzz work. LOL
Well, truth be told, I'm not even sure if it works or not yet, because my soldering iron keeps deciding to go out of commission.
Trying to clean the old solder off the tip, its just burning the god-damn sponge and making it worse
ahhhhhh am I doing something wrong?

Are you wetting the sponge first? Dear god shield your eyes when you do that though...

And is it hot enough, what wattage is it? and is it set to a high enough temperature if it has a control.

Get rid of the sponge and get the filings stuff that looks like a pot scrubber.
Tin your leads too -- makes it much easier.

You mean the steel wool in a jar lookin stuff? lol
And yeah, the sponge was just a wee bit wet - but just barely. So, I'm guessing it's not wet enough?

The irons a 40 watt Weller - SP40L. sadly theres no temperature control.
Is it okay if I just scrape off the crap thats on there right now with a little sandpaper?

Yeah I find that a wetter sponge helps and I never really have a problem getting stuff off my iron that way.

40W is plenty, urmm I dunno... you don't wanna wear down the tip too much (possibly depending on the iron) wet and dry might be okay.

I guess i'll try to sand off the crap thats there now (it's blacker than black at the moment) and I'm gonna go dunk my sponge in the sink lol
haha I just want something that works, dammit, I'm fairly sure all of my failed attempts at this point were from a dirty iron, i mean i've tried like 4 different projects at this point (ruby amp, two muff fuzzes, this bass fuzz) and man am I flustered.

You'll get there in the end!

Yeah dunk the sponge, give it a good squeeze so it's wet but not soaking and give the iron a wipe, really though be careful, the solder really spits... I don't really know about giving tips on wiping it off though but make sure the irons hot and quick movements to minimize the chance of the sponge burning onto the iron I guess... mine is usually pretty shiny after that.

Its most likely all the crap on the tip of your iron. I've noticed that no matter how well I place leads, heat them, and drop a dab of solder, if there is a buncha junk on the end of the iron the circuit fails. Definitely try getting the sponge a bit wetter (not drenched, though) or get one of those steel wool-ish things. Any pieces of sponge or whatever else will kill the joint.

Oh, and the sandpaper idea is good. I do that every once in a while to get rid of any corrosion and debris.