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Hello, just wondering if there are any downsides (besides price) to using solder-less wiring harnesses, like mojo tone or obsidian?


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I haven't used the MojoTone solderless system but in general, electrical connections have improved a lot over the last couple decades. A lot of house and commercial wiring is now done with "push-on" type connectors and they work pretty well. Looks like Mojotone is a company that takes a lot of pride in their work so I think you'll be fine if that's what you are considering.

It is hard to beat solder though. And in something like a guitar that's moved around a lot there are advantages to solder.

Soldering isn't difficult as long as you follow basic rules and it is a good skill to learn. Lots of excellent youtube videos on good solder techniques. A couple hours of practice and you should have it down.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I really appreciate the response and the info. And I totally agree that soldering is a must for electric guitar/bass building, i’m still working on it but I can’t seem to get the hang of it. I was just curious how it would hold up overtime and with travel, and you answered that for me thank you! It was what I thought “it works but not as good as a well done solder connection”


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Solderless guitar wiring systems have been around for about 50 years. Any EMG system has solderless connections, as well as numerous active bass pre-amps.

There are significant advantages to solderless connections in terms of flexibility, component swapping, and troubleshooting. I think you should use whichever you prefer.

If anyone tells you they can hear a difference between soldered and solderless connections they're engaging in magical thinking. The effectiveness of any connection can be easily tested by taking a multi-meter and measuring the resistance across the connection.

Soldering skills are certainly also good to learn. There is a great soldering basics course available on LinkedIn Learning:

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-soldering-for-electronics

Where I live, we get free access to LinkedIn Learning through our public library. I'd recommend checking to see if that's the case in your area too.

I have mounted small terminal strips in the pickup cavities of semi hollow body guitar for splicing the pickup wires. It makes wiring much easier than fishing everything out thru the f-holes particularly if you wanted to change pickups.

Everything else I solder.