Peavey Classic 30 II: lead-free solder?

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bucksears
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Peavey Classic 30 II: lead-free solder?

Post by bucksears » Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:17 pm

I've got my Classic 30 II taken apart at the moment, with the intention of doing the 'Fenderized input' and replacing the EQ caps with orange drop (bass and mid) and silver mica (treble), per the Blue Guitar mods.
When taking out the input parts (two caps, two resistors), I noticed the ground-side connections are near impossible to desolder.

Is Peavey using some high-temp solder? Is there some trick to desoldering on the ground plane?

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j0nsnell
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Re: Peavey Classic 30 II: lead-free solder?

Post by j0nsnell » Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:30 am

The trick is to use a hot soldering iron with a moderate sized bit.
In my workshop I use a Metcal MX-5241 80Watt temperature controlled soldering station with plenty of flux and have absolutely no issues. The metalwork absorbs the heat from low powered soldering irons and can make it difficult to de solder.
The older amplifiers used standard 60/40 solder but to comply with EU regs, may be using lead free now, which melts at a slightly higher temperature; 272°C ish.

bucksears
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Re: Peavey Classic 30 II: lead-free solder?

Post by bucksears » Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:17 am

Thanks!
I got enough parts out to do the 'Fenderized Input' mod, but stopped there and put it back together. The caps I wanted to replace in the EQ section are all under the long-legged PCB-mount pots; I didn't want to start removing those if I have a hard time removing the caps & clearing out the solder.

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