Branston Mistress

The Mistress range

When Tim Branston’s classic V-fronted Dominator amp came in for repair in autumn 2013, it needed only a few minor repairs – mainly replacing old Hunts capacitors with modern equivalents – before it sounded immense. Its classic design has 3x ECC83 pre-amp valves, and 2x EL84 12W output valves. An EZ81 valve rectifier gives it the classic valve “sag” we expect from early 60s and 70s British blues recordings.

Inspired by this experience, I created the Branston Mistress. Its production chassis has improved weight distribution from the original, and is formed from laser cut aluminium. The cabinets are CNC cut from Forestry Standards Comission 9mm Baltic birch ply, then hand assembled. The cabinets are then hand profiled and finished, before they are introduced to their speakers and chassis.

Donna – Lee

Serial number 0003 (master build)

Shaking some of the tradition, this one has been built using more modern design principles. It has only 2 ground points – one for the pre-amp & oscillator & 1 for the output valves. This means it has really low noise levels, and is more suitable to a studio situation. The inputs are back to how the original amp was laid out and it’s easier to jack from the swell channel to the normal channel to give more tone options.

Features:

• 2 input Normal channel
• 2 input Swell channel (tremolo)
• Single tone control on each channel
• Footswitch for Swell oscillator defeat
• 1970s vintage Elac 10N/94 10″ Alnico drivers.
• VVT custom magnetics
• JJ (Slovakia) ECC83MG / EL84 valve set
• Shielded thermoset valve bases
• CDE signal line polypropylene “orange drop” capacitor set
• 1KV Ceramic oscillator cap set
• Song Huei volume and tone pots
• Varnished fabric covering
• Point-to-point construction
• Shielded signal wiring
• Low noise single ground point pre-amp wiring
• Chicked head and precision knobs
• Rugged & rattle-free carry handle

This now has the Elac 10N/94 10″ speakers fitted, and now has the crisp tone and clarity that this design deserves. Future builds of this amp will be based on this build. Specification of parts may vary. 

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Cherylyn

Serial number 0002 (sold Nov 2015)

Cherylyn was built with transparency in mind – covered in sheer fabric so you can see the construction, and the speaker baffles are not painted so you can see where the speakers are. Construction lines and cuts are visible, as are the laminations of the plywood. The tremolo speed, valve clips and closed construction are similar to the original spec.

Unique features:

• Celestion 7442 NIB cone 10″ drivers
• BLS magnetics
• Tung-Sol (Russia) 12AX7 / EL84 valve set
• Sheer fabric transparent varnished covering

This amp has a clarity of tone that just has to be heard, mainly due to its Celestion 7442 NIB coned speakers and closed construction. If you’re into funk, give this baby a listen.

This amp was made for Gavin White, and was collected in November 2015.

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Betty Sue

Serial number 0001 (sold Feb 2015)

Betty was built as a production version of Rosie. The main improvements on the prototype are the CNC cut cabinet, laser-cut slimmer chassis, using 2mm aluminium, laser-etched fascia, and much tidier wiring. It has the same Elac 10N/94 vintage speakers, same valves, resistors and capacitors. The fabric on the outside was also cut differently to prevent premature fraying and peeling.

Unique features:

• Vented nose mesh breather allows viewing of valves
• Elac 10N/94 10″ drivers
• BLS magnetics
• Tung-Sol (Russia) 12AX7 / EL84 valve set

This is a full sounding amp, with a crispness and clarity to its tone. I’d say this is one for the British blues revivalists.

“I LOVED it!” Gwyn Ashton – http://www.gwynashton.com/

This amp was made for Gary Williams, and was collected in Feb 2015. It can be seen around Moseley, Birmingham, and its surrounding area.

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Rosie the Rebel (Custom)

Serial number 0000, Rosie was the prototype. With the hand cut and crafted cabinet body complete, fabric was stretched between lengths of lath and pressed against the glue coat on the outside of it, making sure minimal bubbling occurred. What resulted was a thing of sheer beauty. A prototype for a series of wonderful and unique amps.

In 2015 she was rebuilt to a custom spec – my spec; she was mine, after all. She’s now a lot more rugged, the graphics look great, and there’s a ton of switchable grunt into a gravity defying pair of Celestion T1927 speakers. One like this can be built with Celestion Greenback speakers, or with the highered powered 25W EL84 or 6L6 spec (with double the transformer weight).

Features:

• Single input
• Switchable channels:
  •   Clean channel
  •   Dirty channel
• Switch or footswitch operation
• Reversed layout – controlled from the front
• Celestion T1927 10″ drivers with Pulsonic cones
• Dual Rectifier – EZ81 / silicon
• Shared cathode follower driven TMB tone control
• BLS magnetics with over-voltage HT
• ECC83 / Tung Sol EL84 valve set

This version of the Mistress amp can also be ordered.

I made this amp as a prototype for me in 2014, and then modified to my own spec in 2015. Stuart Robson from SBC Guitars loved it so much, I finally gave in and let him have it in the summer of 2019.

Listen: Gary Williams on his Asher Dual Tone, through Rosie, recorded on a Royer R101 ribbon mic

“Yes! Yes yes, yes! You’ve got the sound! You’ve got it!” Tim Branston – (on iTunes) (on YouTube)

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Watkins Dominator rebuild

Not one for missing an opportunity, in late 2018 I found a 50s / early 60s Watkins Dominator chassis on ebay, and got it for a reasonable price.

I completely re-furbed the chassis, re-valved it, and built it a new cabinet. I used natural and dyed muslin cloth over porous spray paint to get the colours, and then coated with a polyurethane varnish coat. I made new faceplate by copying the original, then laser engraving and cutting it out of 0.5mm laser laminate.

It looked and sounded beautiful.

Here are a few photos of that: