Our resident amp-building guru, Tunghaichuan, highly recommends the following soldering iron for both pedal and amp work. You just need different tips for the small stuff vs. the bigger jobs. This is a temp.-controlled unit and gives you much more control and flexibility than the cheaper non-controlled units:


Iron: Hakko 936-12 ESD temperature controlled station

Tips: 900M-T-2.4D for amp work; 900M-T-2LD for PCB/pedal work

Tip Cleaner: Hakko 599B-02 bronze wool tip cleaner

Solder: Kester #66/34, SN63/PB37 eutectic solder; .062" for amp work, .031" for PCB/pedal work (not RoHS compliant, can't be used in California and Europe)

The only real downside to this iron is that tips are not typcially available locally and you'll need to order them online. But they last a long tme, so that's a minor point.

You can get similar irons from Weller; they cost a bit more for comparable features, but have the advantage of being widely available.