Solder the speaker wire or use clips?

What is your method on the speaker tabs?

Solder!

Clips!

Solder. Every time. The last thing you want is a clip slipping and causing your power section to see no load. It takes 2 minutes and is a much more stable and secure method.

I have no slippage on my clippage.

Seriously i have never had an issue and it is easier to experiment/ change speakers. I give an extra crimp to the clip with my strippers and have never had an issue.

With soldering I worry about overheating the terminal and having the small extension wire to the speaker come off. It happened to me before (not due to soldering) and it was a pain to get back on.

I use clips, but doing a demo, I want to be able to change the drivers in a cab quickly and I do not want to loose the space having a cab for every driver I have.

You may have noticed that speakers vibrate and clips can work loose. After a few years the contacts corrode, which makes for some small extra resistance. Clips are only marginally quicker than the soldering iron. I solder.

You may have noticed that speakers vibrate and clips can work loose. After a few years the contacts corrode, which makes for some small extra resistance. Clips are only marginally quicker than the soldering iron. I solder.

Soldering causes brittle wires whose strands can break over time due to vibration and corrosion. Solder joints can become cold and crack due to changes in environment.

Clips are the best way to go, and the easiest to maintain. That is the key word, "maintain". A clip can be easliy realigned with a pair of needlenose and and cleaned with some steel wool. Soldered wires require a soldering iron, which requires power that is notalways readily available.

Both are viable, but the clip has the definite edge.

CLIPS

SOLDER

older Fender amps are soldered, and for good reason.

Do you want it a) fast or do you want it b) well done?
a) clip
b) solder
:wink:

If you're looking to A/B some drivers to get a sense of what you like in a particular cab, sure, go for the clips. But once you've decided on what you want to use, solder it up!

A well-soldered connection isn't going to break.

never had a problem with clips!

Solder. Every time. The last thing you want is a clip slipping and causing your power section to see no load. It takes 2 minutes and is a much more stable and secure method.

I'm with you on that. I have a small combo, and it's always possible to bump the speaker lead when you put stuff in the back.

Of course, if you are not confident in your soldering ability, best to stick to the clip method.

I use clips, but doing a demo, I want to be able to change the drivers in a cab quickly and I do not want to loose the space having a cab for every driver I have.

For a temporary installation, clips are plenty good enough.

(on an AC30) that was enough to solder my speaker lead connections!

I soldered the one speaker I have hooked up. Never thought about clips since none were included in the kit. :grin:

Soldering causes brittle wires whose strands can break over time due to vibration and corrosion. Solder joints can become cold and crack due to changes in environment.

Clips are the best way to go, and the easiest to maintain. That is the key word, "maintain". A clip can be easliy realigned with a pair of needlenose and and cleaned with some steel wool. Soldered wires require a soldering iron, which requires power that is notalways readily available.

Both are viable, but the clip has the definite edge.

Solder flows by capillary action ('wetting') onto the metals to be joined, there is some surface chemical reaction (the 'tinning') forming an excellent electrical bond. It can be used to join many dissimilar metals or materials: copper, gold, silver, iron, steel, aluminium, glass. Wires correctly soldered do not become brittle nor do the contacts oxidise, and they last for many, many years (otherwise all our amps would have to be re-soldered on a regular basis). A poor solder joint may oxidise and become 'dry' i.e. the wires become un-wetted. If a wire breaks from a mechanical means then it was probably too thin in the first place.

I have had numerous problems with those wretched spade clips, mainly on the car, wires pull out of the crimp, the slot opens up and becomes loose, the plating oxidises and the electrical contact fails. I've had amps make disaster threatening loud crackling 'blown speaker' noises, traced to a loose one on the speaker. Yes a soldering iron requires power, presumably the same stuff you plug the amp into.

Duct Tape! I Kid! I Kid!

Most designs can be improved on, question is, how strong/conductive does a connection have to be to be strong/conductive enough?
Solder is probably better, I use clips...I don't solder the mains lead either.

I once posed this question to Ted Webber of Webber VST and he recommended soldering the connections. I always solder the speaker wires.

It would seem to me a good approach is that if you intend to try different speakers to use clips until you're happy and then solder the final choice.

Steve

I'll just go ahead and point out that there are thousands upon thousands of Marshall 4x12 cabs that have lived in trailers and been gigged hard for decades - and use clips.

The amount of vibration that is required to bend a clip and cause it to fail over time could just as easily cause a solder joint to fail. Those spade connectors, when properly used, are very tough to disconnect, and I've had them come loose from the wire when trying to remove them from speaker terminals.

In a combo cab where you're putting footswitch wires, power cables etc in and out all the time, soldering is a must, but that's not enough - also zip ties to hold the speaker leads in position so if the speaker cable gets bumped or yanked it won't stress or pull on the solder connections. In a closed back cab clips are less of an issue but can still come loose, I use the same philosophy, partly because in my experience everything that can come disconnected will eventually do so, at the most inconvenient time, with the maximum possible damage caused.

My speakers don't need wires, they already KNOW what to do. j/k

I usually clip if there are clips, and solder if there aren't. Actually I just did some speaker swapping and I went to Walmart and bought terminal clips just in case I need/want to change again. Radio Shack did not have terminal clips. I wish I could say that was surprising, but I'm becoming all to accustomed to walking out of Radio Shack in disappointment.

I crimp and then solder the wires to the clips and make sure the clips are secured very tight on the terminals: I need them to come off when I really want to without breaking out the soldering kit, but stay tight because I stuff cables in the back. This way the terminals will break off the speaker sooner than the clips will slip.

Solder.

Why add a second connection to each lead?

Chewing gum and tinfoil

Chewing gum and tinfoil

Yeah one of best around does-it-all fix materials. But like everything else Gum just ain't what it used to be :mad:
But duct tape can still be good as long as you source it from your local hvac builder. But even that is under assualt now out here in Cal. siggghhh. Texas seems to be the only place to still h.i.s.t.- I assume the gum is still good over yonder in Tex.:confused:

Temporary = clip.
Best electrical connection = proper solder joint, affords more contact area than the mechanical clips for higher current connections.
I was taught that solder is not an adhesive, so if it broke you did not strain relieve it (i.e. follow lead dress) properly for the operating conditions.

$.02
Jack