86 Special..........funky 86

[dreric]

Hi everyone!

My first dip into the DIY waters was with a AX84 high octane. Truthfully it was a sloppy job that never really sounded very good, consequently I had the transformers on hand for the "86 special" which Mat has been generous to share in the following thread.

https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.php?t=13854

I will admit that I have found that thread frustrating to follow. In case you're like me, here's what i can figure about the evolution on this design. (please forgive and correct me if I have any of this wrong)

1. Mat and High Gain developed "MT's Mini HRM" blending a HRM preamp with a AX85 High Octane power amp. There was an excellent schematic of this drawn by Colossal but I can no longer seem to find it on TAG (please post on the thread if you have it)

2. Mat's own Mini HRM grew into the 86 Special, of which he shared some inspiring sound clips of in the thread referenced above. In the 86 special the second gain stage uses a EF86 rather than the 12AX7.

3. With the work of 10thtx and others, the thread above has a schematic and layout of the 86 Special.

It is from this schematic and layout and the original MT's Mini HRM that I am basing my build. Just to make it more confusing I decided to name my build the "Funky 86".

I thought start a new thread, I'm not sure if anyone else is building the 86 Special I'd offer some pictures. Please feel free to comment, correct, advise or add photo of your own builds.

Special thanks to Mat, 10thtx, High Gain and Colossal as well as everyone who's party of this awesome community!

Eric

[dreric]

More..........

I wanted to use parts on hand for this build. The chassis is a $15 job from ddawgamps.com, he sells on eBay. The faceplate will be a $25 print job on 0.04 styrene from Kinko's / FEDEX.

Eric

[dcribbs1412]

cool project Eric
nice mix of NOS and new parts
those chassis are great for the money
using one on my next project
Good luck

[M Fowler]

That project is coming along nicely

Mark

[Colossal]

Very nice Eric! Brian's chassis are very nice.

[Colossal]

Hey guys, Dreric asked me to post the link to Mat's original 5W mini-HRM amp.

Here's the link to the discussion:
https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.ph ... rm&start=0

and the link to the schematic:
https://tubeamparchive.com/files/mts_mini_hrm_190.pdf

[dreric]

Thanks Colossal!


Here's some progress. Hardware mounted, Primary AC and Heaters done, no smokes!

Eric