A magnetic recording head is provided including a body with a trailing surface, a plurality of bond pads in a row, each of which is spaced by a gap from an adjacent bond pad along a width of the trailing surface. Each bond pad includes a base layer having a top surface, a coating layer covering at least a portion of the top surface of the base layer, two side edges spaced from each other across a width of the bond pad, wherein a width of the gap between adjacent bond pads is defined by one side edge of each of two adjacent bond pads, a top edge extending between the two side edges, and at least one solder dam comprising a nonwettable, electrically conductive material positioned adjacent to the top edge of at least one of the bond pads.