Conductive Wire Glue ... a soldering substitue?

Has anyone used the 'NO Soldering Iron Conductive Wire Glue'?
Does it really work as a substitute for soldering?
I'm working on my guitar pickups and I'd like to know if this thing actually works for that matter.

Hi there,


I have some experience using Wire Glue because i bought some to test it out.
It does work, so if you were to first twist the wires together and then coat
them with wire glue it could form a connection that is good enough for
the low currents involved with a guitar pickup.
What else i would do however, is after it dries coat it with 5 minute epoxy.
This not only insulates it but also gives it more strength. The Wire Glue
product doesnt have that much strength, so you might need the epoxy.
You might also get away without using the epoxy, but i'd use it just to
make sure the connection doesnt come apart.

Nothing beats soldering though, so if you can pick up an iron somewhere and
some solder that is the best.

Are you talking about the expensive silver loaded expoxy or the cheap carbon loaded epoxy?

The silver epoxy is good but too expensive to replace solder, I haven't tried the carbon epoxy but I can't see it being very good.

The product sold as "wire glue" is the cheap carbon loaded epoxy. And as mentioned it is fragile.

Soldering is cheap, simple, easy, and extremely reliable - it would be foolish to attempt to use a more expensive, far poorer solution.

Why not solder ?

Yeah you can get mains powered fine tip soldering irons with an adjustable electronic temp controller in the plastic handle, I bought a couple for about $18 USD each, perfect to chuck in toolboxes etc for times when you need to fix something for a friend.

Please respond appropriately

I appreciate y'all's comments but keep in mind this is about the wire glue product; your experience and your comment about this particular product. I know as well that soldering is a very effective technique for joining metal components.

Why not use Solder That comes as a paste All u have to do is clean the surface apply solderpaste and heat the solder inside the paste will bond the joints.

Why not solder? You still haven't answered this question.

Let me put it in simple terms. "Wire Glue" would be a bad choice for this application. It form a very weak mechanical bond.

Rotten organs Restal pus said:

I appreciate y'all's comments but keep in mind this is about the wire glue product; your experience and your comment about this particular product. I know as well that soldering is a very effective technique for joining metal components.

Click to expand...

Hello again,


The resistivity is much higher than copper, as much as 500000 times higher,
but for short distances it still comes out to low ohms.

The test with the two wires was to twist them together about 5 turns,
then dip the turns into the wire glue container and let dry. After drying,
the joint measures zero ohms, but jumps up a little if you pull on the two
wires a bit. It jumps up as high as 1 ohm sometimes, but then jumps back
down. This does not happen with a straight non broken wire, which tells
me that a joint made with wire glue subject to movement may change the
resistance a little, so you would have to be aware of that. The resistance
doesnt change much however, so with a guitar pickup it would most likely
work if you twist the wires together first.
I propose a test: do one set of pickups with wire glue (twist wires together
first) and try it out with the amplifier of your choice. Remember that you also
at least need some insulation over the wire glue too though, to prevent shorts
to other joints in the same area.
The pickup dc resistance is over 1k ohms, so adding 1 ohm in series with that
isnt going to make a heck of a lot of difference so the wire glue should work
for the guitar pickups. As i said before though, i would let dry for a few days
and then coat with 5 minute epoxy for strength and added insulation.

The test you propose brought wire nuts to mid.

If "Rotten organs Restal pus" would tell us why he is avoiding solder it might help.

3v0

3v0 said:

The test you propose brought wire nuts to mid.

If "Rotten organs Restal pus" would tell us why he is avoiding solder it might help.

3v0

Click to expand...

Probably picked the wrong end of the iron as a kid...

The only thing i ever found that glue to be good for was over clocking a AMD chip and making Intel Celeron look like a p3 on a duel processors board. But a pencil worked just as good and didn't need the glue.Just keep rubbing till you put down a heavy line

dknguyen said:

Why not solder? You still haven't answered this question.

Click to expand...

CAUSE I'M SCARED, OKAY?
lol No, it's just that it's my first time soldering these pickup wires and I'm kind of hesitant. I thought it'd be a "cleaner" job if I went ahead with buying the conductive wire glue.

If the wires are large it shouldn't be a problem. The difficult things about soldering is...well nothing really. It's just precision if the joint needs to be small.

MrAl said:

Hello again,


The resistivity is much higher than copper, as much as 500000 times higher,
but for short distances it still comes out to low ohms.

The test with the two wires was to twist them together about 5 turns,
then dip the turns into the wire glue container and let dry. After drying,
the joint measures zero ohms, but jumps up a little if you pull on the two
wires a bit. It jumps up as high as 1 ohm sometimes, but then jumps back
down. This does not happen with a straight non broken wire, which tells
me that a joint made with wire glue subject to movement may change the
resistance a little, so you would have to be aware of that. The resistance
doesnt change much however, so with a guitar pickup it would most likely
work if you twist the wires together first.
I propose a test: do one set of pickups with wire glue (twist wires together
first) and try it out with the amplifier of your choice. Remember that you also
at least need some insulation over the wire glue too though, to prevent shorts
to other joints in the same area.
The pickup dc resistance is over 1k ohms, so adding 1 ohm in series with that
isnt going to make a heck of a lot of difference so the wire glue should work
for the guitar pickups. As i said before though, i would let dry for a few days
and then coat with 5 minute epoxy for strength and added insulation.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks dude. But how do you manage to hold the wires? Will they stick right away?
I asked someone on ebay, about this epoxy thing, who used the product and she said putting a bit of epoxy glue over the wire glue to strengthen didn't do anything good.

dknguyen said:

If the wires are large it shouldn't be a problem. The difficult things about soldering is...well nothing really. It's just precision if the joint needs to be small.

Click to expand...

No it's the pickup plate, right... It's a very tiny spot and lots wires are in there. So, I gotta be careful.

Rotten organs Restal pus said:

Hey thanks dude. But how do you manage to hold the wires? Will they stick right away?
I asked someone on ebay, about this epoxy thing, who used the product and she said putting a bit of epoxy glue over the wire glue to strengthen didn't do anything good.

Click to expand...

Hello again,


Well, when you twist the wire ends together that gives it the mechanical
support it needs while the wire glue is drying. It's that simple. First
strip maybe 3/4 inch from the ends of both wires to be joined, then
twist them together maybe 5 turns or more. That puts them into
good contact to begin with, even without the wire glue. Then, dip
into the wire glue container and that coats then entire joint. You
will then have to give it time to dry during which time the joint should
not be moved at all.
The next step, should you want to add more mechanical strength, is
to add some 5 minute epoxy over the wire glue, plus a little more
over the leads that still have insulation. This will add to the mechanical
strength despite what that eBay'er said. Just make sure the epoxy
also coats some of the leads where there is still insulation.
The more epoxy the better here, and another idea is to tape the wires
before the epoxy dries to something solid, like the guitar wood sides or
bottom. Two small pieces of tape even better, one on each side of the
joint (not over the joint). This will hold the joint with epoxy onto the
wood which when dry will keep the joint from moving. This wont always
be possible of course, when the wires are not long enough to allow this
or they have to be able to move after the repair anyway.
If you are really concerned about the strength, after the epoxy is
applied before it dries wrap several turns of heavy duty 'coat' thread
around the joint. The epoxy will soak into the thread and form a nice
solid mechanical structure. You can even coat the joint a second time
with the epoxy to get a stronger joint.

Let me see if i can draw a picture of this...be right back...