It depends how good a solderer you are and when are as good as I am and if you have the only soldering iron worth having (Weller of course with the right tip) you can make perfect pot case connections. I have never done a messy one in my life. Perfect little blobs.
 
Actually I was only having fun but you can do it. The trick is to tin the wires nicely before you attach them to the back of the pot. The right iron and tip makes a huge difference. Tips need to be clean. Most people are soldering with crappy irons and tips. A good iron gets nicely hot but you don't have to heat the back of the pot for long in order to make the solder melt nicely.
 
I had 12 months of soldering training when I was studying electronics. A year!

Use a metal box/face plate and all your pots will be grounded to it by default.

I wish I could do that multi-quote move....
 
Zonno- I use mainly a high wattage gun (260/200 trigger control) for pots. ( I had crap looking connections until I got the gun...low wattage just can't get you there)
I scratch the pot and apply a small amount of liquid solder flux. High heat and fast will get you there.
Nice gun to have for jobs like that and soldering a ground to tremelo spring bracket, etc.
All other connections for the guitar I make with a low wattage iron.
 
Karyn- I think that when one is in a situation such as Sonnys' that he would rather use a nice amp and just plug it into the cabinets that are on location. Never been in that type of gig but can see his point.
 
Having a high wattage gun is great for steaming out small dents in (unfinished) wood too :)
Put a little water on the dent, cover with a wet paper towel and stick the heat to it. Repeat as needed.

Karyn
Use a metal box/face plate and all your pots will be grounded to it by default.

Just like Leo did with the "Broadcaster".
 
 
 
 
 
I like having one of these handy. I forget which flavor I use but it's the one that matches the solder I am using.
 

Jeff Evans
It depends how good a solderer you are and when are as good as I am and if you have the only soldering iron worth having (Weller of course with the right tip) you can make perfect pot case connections. I have never done a messy one in my life. Perfect little blobs.
 
Actually I was only having fun but you can do it. The trick is to tin the wires nicely before you attach them to the back of the pot. The right iron and tip makes a huge difference. Tips need to be clean. Most people are soldering with crappy irons and tips. A good iron gets nicely hot but you don't have to heat the back of the pot for long in order to make the solder melt nicely.
 
I had 12 months of soldering training when I was studying electronics. A year!

:-)
 
I never formally studied soldering at school... but I went to a lot of effort to learn everything I could from the guys that made space ships up in Cocoa Beach... in my mind those are the guys that created the standards that are now taught in schools.
 
I have formally studied jewelry making which involves a lot of open flame soldering and using sequenced grades of temp dependent solders so your structures don't fall apart as you add the next piece.
 
My mentors tell me my solder work looks like jewelry and I've never had a joint go bad, but I keep trying to get better at it each time.
 
It's a craft.
 
:-)

demeter makes some awesome sounding amps.

batsbrew
demeter makes some awesome sounding amps.

I've never heard one...of course there have been few I've heard in the last decade.
 
I did imagine it was/is a very good thing. For some reason I think Sonny has his act together ;)
 
The cool thing to me was that I've never heard of a pedal board amp. No reason for me to have.
I don't remember anybody around here ever mentioning having or using one either.

I'd be curious to ask Mr. Landreth if his interest in having a portable substitute for back line rental amps is based on experiences of encountering poorly maintained amps that have definite operating malfunctions or if it is based on encountering well maintaned amps that do not give him the tone he is looking for.
 
My personal interest in guitar amps includes, and is probably preoccupied with, the mating of some special speaker to the output transformer of the amp.
 
Most hand made amps have more in common than they have difference and so, IMO, the choice of speaker is a definitive ingredient in the over all experience.
 
My guess is that Mr Landreth owns enough hand made amps, and has enough experience with them to know what he likes so I would be real curious to learn what specific goal he was hoping to meet by being able to cart his own small format amp around, and I would be curious to learn what his thoughts are about speakers are as well.
 
 
 
 
I only know a bit about him. The first time I saw him I thought... "wow did Albert Lee get younger and take up playing slide?" and then I looked up the video credits and learned that the guy playing such hot and steamy music was named Sonny Landreth. :-)
 
 
best regards,
mike
 
 
 
 

Mike I don't share your interests with amps and the construction/functioning of so if I had
a chance to spend time with him I'd much rather pick is brain about his thought process
while playing over certain changes. Slide is something I just haven't spent much time with so
most anything he shared would be news to me. :)
 
I do know that he frets and bends behind the slide which is very cool...the guy is just a monster on the loose.