Luke 3 Soldering iron on ribbon cable to change a broken pot...

[Sauro_On_Guitar]

I have a beautiful luke 3 h/h, I think it is from 2019 (it has the musicman pickups not the dimarzio). After a few weeks the volume pot broke, the push/push no longer works to turn on the boost. It is a mechanical failure of the potentiometer and the Italian assistance has sent me the pot to replace. But I found that the soldering to be done to replace it is on a ribbon cable, and I've never soldered such a thing. Is there a particular procedure to be done?

 

[Rbg]

I potentially would despiser the bottom of the ribbon contact off the board first as it is a better angle for the iron and less changes for it to slip or overheat the insulation on that ribbon.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

I would use either desolder braid and or a solder suction gun to remove the solder from the ribbon cable. It's not one of the easiest things to do with solder, but I've done that exact job on a L3.

 

[Steve Nukather]

Remove the preamp and rewire it passive with CTS pots. It will sound better and be more reliable.

 

[beej]

I don't see how it'd sound any better. You'll lose the buffer, which will affect the sound so it'll be more cable dependent. Plus it's a lot more work to rip everything out than it is to replace a pot on a PCB.

 

[Sauro_On_Guitar]

I'm scared to melt the ribbon with the Soldering iron

 

[tbonesullivan]

Have you removed the knob from the push / push pot to make sure that the pot shaft didn't slip out of place?

 

[Sauro_On_Guitar]

Have you removed the knob from the push / push pot to make sure that the pot shaft didn't slip out of place?

Yes, sure Sir. It's without doubt a broken push push.

 

[Lost In Space]

Does this happen alot with the Lukes? I had 2 and same thing. Luckily I could do the zip tie trick as the boost still worked, but the knob would not stay down.

I am on my 3rd Luke and constantly afraid this will happen

 

[Rbg]

From what I understand that push-push switch is not so good quality by design. I have not looked inside, but Pete told me it has a plastic shaft that cause some problem. Mine is scratchy and has tons of play on a brand new BFR and it really pisses me off as feel like super cheap guitar every time I touch it. (Compare to my L2 where traditional pot from 2005 is still rock solid)