Help with first Mach 1

taita87

New member
Hi all! Firstly, this is my dream community!!! How I lived without this I dont know!

Coming to the point, I would want to build a Mach 1, as 220euro for a lightspeed is really too much... and cause I LOVE DIY things.
There are some problems:
1- I have basic soldering abilities (here and there some electrical soldering at home)
2- I don't know where to start, which tools I need etc
3- I live in Italy, based on some surfing I understood that the majority of the community is from USA, do I have problems buying the components I need for the project from italy?

Thank you all in advance for the help!
 
For starters... get a decent iron... I paid $40 us for a Mercee soldering station and it is absolute awesome and has gotten me through hundreds of pedals now. I do buy genuine Japanese Hakko tips for it. Kester leaded solder if you can get it. Brass sponge for tip cleaning.

Kester 24-6337-0027 Solder Roll, Core Size 66, 63/37 Alloy, 0.031" Diameter​

buy yourself some perfboard/strip board to just practice soldering some wires and resistors on .

VIRALLOY® Solder Sucker No Clog Desoldering Pump Perfect Desoldering Tool for Solder Remover with Strong Vacuum Suction, Heat Resistant Taper Nozzle for Smooth Solder Inrush & Pre-cut Silicone Tubes... This guy is a life saver... you'll thank us later.​

Cheap chinese component tester for checking values of caps and resistors and most transistors.

you'll want to source your resistors as metal film 1% 1/4 watt
buy your electrolytic caps in 25V
sources for components can be Tayda for resistors, capacitors, enclosures, switches, leds, ic sockets and jacks. I try to buy stomp switches, IC chips, transistors and diodes stateside from sources like Stomp Box Parts.
sourcing the right size parts was my initial struggle on what exactly to order because there were so many sizes choices..
resistors like 460R= 460 ohms, 46K= 46,000 ohms and 460K= 460,000 ohms can be confusing so dont get them mixed up... and even 4K6= 4600 ohms ... there's a few tips from me
and pedalpcb cannot be beat for pcb layout. ease of building and customer service is incredible.
 
Thank you so much but is there anyone who live in Europe? Buying from us market for me is expensive, prices inflate for shipping and taxes
 
Thank you so much but is there anyone who live in Europe? Buying from us market for me is expensive, prices inflate for shipping and taxes
Finland here, but it's still Europe.

You have two choices first. Either start with a kit, or go full on and get parts and PCB's separately. I would suggest starting off with a kit for your first build.

This would be the #1 option for me https://www.musikding.de/Mach-1-Overdrive-kit, but it's out of stock. You can set a reminder there for it. You can get an unpainted enclosure that is pre-drilled too from Musikding.

Other kit alternative I know of would be from Fuzzdog https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/product/186282mps, but you will probably need to pay customs from the UK.

The alternative is to get parts and PCB's separately, but for PedalPCB PCB's you will have to order from their store, and the postage and customs cost quite a bit. I order around 5 or more at a time when there's a small discount, which helps. They come out to around ~15€ or a bit less per PCB.

Buying all the parts is a pain though since you need to learn what type of parts you want - it's also quite fun and rewarding in the long run, but to make it worthwhile you probably want to order parts in bulk. The learning curve and bulk buying leads me to suggest the kit for a starter.

If you go with the kit, you will still need the following at a minimum:

1.) Soldering Iron
2.) Solder
3.) Wire cutters

I would definitely suggest having thin nosed pliers, a digital multimeter and the solder sucker as suggested earlier in case you need to desolder any parts (mistakes and such). I also use a PCB holder and a tool to help with bending resistor and diode legs, although you can get by without those. Musikding also has some tools if you need those, or the pliers and wire cutters can easily be had locally. I assume you have an iron and solder already if you've soldered before?

If you're going to buy the components, I would suggest Tayda Electronics. They're in Thailand, and shipping costs and customs are expensive again, but I still found them the cheapest option for me (plus they have pre-drilled enclosures, and even UV printing services to get your own design on the pedals - that's a whole another learning experience though). Other options for parts would be Mouser or Digikey - they have free shipping over 50€ (at least for Mouser), but it was still more expensive than Tayda for me.
 
Hi @taita87 !
I am Italian as well, and quite new to this community
I have always ordered everything from Musikding, you have to wait a bit for the delivery but the customer service is great. Their stock changes very often so sign up for a reminder on the kit, it will have everything you need, you just have to pick the knobs separately.

If you need help just let me know
 
The fuzz dog alternative though it's another circuit with different components :/
No, the 186 282 Mps (hint: what travels at 186,000 miles per second?) is the same circuit. Only differences I think are the power filtering caps (correct me if I'm wrong) which are larger in the Fuzzdog, which doesn't really matter too much, and the diodes which are essentially the same:

"As the most common mass-produced switching diode, the 1N4148 replaced the older 1N914, they can be used interchangeably and are cross-reference replacements for each other. "
 
Excellent choice on going with a Lightspeed build! Still my favorite "transparent" OD by far!

I realize I'm late to the conversation, but I've built both the PPCB and Fuzzdog versions, and they both sound pretty much identical. You can't go wrong with either but the PPCB Mach 1 is easier to wire, so I'd gp with that if possible.
 
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