NVPD: The Guv'nor

guitarcookie1

Picked this up recently for a bargain & a new switch later and it's ready to rock again

https://i.imgur.com/pkBmywf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MJVTYPy.jpg

Sounds "huge" into my Double Six amp and cleans up really well from the guitars volume. 

Wanted one of these for years & I'm not disappointed :-)

vasselmeyer

Have a wow. This is my favourite ever overdrive. I've had mine since the early 1990s and it's been on my board forever.  Mine got a little dodgy a few years ago and I tried an Xotic SL Drive, a Catalinbread DLS and a Wampler Plexidrive+. They got close, especially the DLS, but never topped it. In the end I asked @juansolo and Cleggy to repair it and it's back to its full  glory. I have no idea what I'll do if the jacks ever go as apparently they're very difficult indeed to fix or replace.

ICBM

vasselmeyer said:

I have no idea what I'll do if the jacks ever go as apparently they're very difficult indeed to fix or replace.

You can actually get them, but for a better long-term fix you can replace the input and output with the normal Cliff 'Marshall amp type' jacks. This does mean the rear PCB is no longer supported by them, but as long as you leave the loop jack original that will hold the PCB and the power jack in place.

Aidanspaghetti

They are an awesome, awesome pedal. Really blew me away when I tried mine first. It just sounds "right".
Congrats.
I must get mine updated with a switch and jacks etc......

Monstronaut

@guitarcookie1 did you need to get a specific switch? I've got one of these and the switch is on the fritz.

clarkefan

I must have been using mine wrong or something.  I know they're highly regarded but it always sounded "small" to me.  The only way I could ever get a sound out of it I enjoyed was pushing a clipping Marshall 2104 over the top, the way you'd use an SD-1.  As a standalone drive, no not my thing.

Sold it years ago, don't miss it.  Sure miss the 2104 though!

guitarcookie1

Monstronaut said:

@guitarcookie1 did you need to get a specific switch? I've got one of these and the switch is on the fritz.

@Monstronaut ;Just a replacement DPDT from Amazon. £2.99 I think. 

I did get a 3PDT as I thought about making it true bypass but it was too large to fit in the chassis. 

guitarcookie1

vasselmeyer said:

Have a wow. This is my favourite ever overdrive. I've had mine since the early 1990s and it's been on my board forever.  Mine got a little dodgy a few years ago and I tried an Xotix SL Drive, a Catalinbread DLS and a Wampler Plexidrive+. They got close, espacially the DLS, but never topped it. In the end I asked @juansolo and Cleggy to repair it and it's back to it's full  glory. I have no idea what I'll do if the jacks ever go as apparently they're very difficult indeed to fix or replace.

Cheers. I've been using a DLS clone for a while but I can see now that it's almost there but not quite. 

Does anyone have recommendations for drives that stack well with a guv'nor? 

TimmyO

Welcome to the club.

There is stuff around these days that sounds as good or better, but I'm not ashamed to say that I still prefer the mojo of the guv'nor :-) 

mike_l

my favourite od, and i've had a few.... A boss sd-1 boosts it well.

ThePrettyDamned

Why won't they reissue these? Shove them in the neat boxes they already use for the current pedals (the boxes are nice even if the knobs are not...), put better knobs on, use decent soft switches and jacks. Boom. 

ICBM

Even just reissuing them in a normal flat box with decent jacks and a 3PDT would be an improvement, to be honest.

Voxman

clarkefan said:

I must have been using mine wrong or something.  I know they're highly regarded but it always sounded "small" to me.  The only way I could ever get a sound out of it I enjoyed was pushing a clipping Marshall 2104 over the top, the way you'd use an SD-1.  As a standalone drive, no not my thing.

Sold it years ago, don't miss it.  Sure miss the 2104 though!

Congrats @guitarcookie1 - these pedals are getting harder to find now than rocking horse droppings!

These things are always down to personal taste of course, but I have to say I'm with you @clarkefan - I don't get all this love for the original Marshall Guv'nor either I'm afraid - I've played an original Guv'nor next to the Guv'nor2 and to my ears the Guv'nor 2 sounds bigger, and has more of that Marshall bottom end (I love its deep control), and is just more versatile...and it sounds more like a bigger Marshall amp. The Guv'nor was a little brighter (albeit thinner) sounding, but as I can easily kick in my EQ pedal to add a little more top-end if I need it with my Guv'nor2, that was no biggie.  

The Guv'nor does have that interesting loop input, but it's not a compact pedal size, and with  its semi-side mounted controls it can be more awkward to include in a pedal board.  Admittedly, the shiny knobs of the Guv'nor2 aren't ideal for easy live tweaking, but some coloured matt tape solves that issue.  

For those interested I found this comparison video:

Voxman

BTW, in that vid the guy changed the knobs on his Guv'nor2 - the original knobs are gold.

ICBM

That's a very good demo. For what it's worth I prefer the original as an 'extra channel' into a Marshall-type amp, but the GV-2 as a 'Marshall in a box' into a Fender/other-type amp, if that makes sense. As Voxman said, the Deep control is the key - it's capable of getting that big 4x12" roar from a smaller open-back amp.

There's another very useful trick with the Loop jack on the original, which is rarely mentioned - you can use it as an amp selector. If you connect the Loop (with a normal mono cable) to your dirty amp and the Output to your clean amp, the Guv'nor will switch the signal from the clean to the dirty amp at the same time as the pedal comes on.

Aidanspaghetti

Cool - does the out jack stay clean then? Could it keep a dirty amp as is and drive a clean amp through the loop function?
Ie a Cornford RK on the output and a clean amp ob the loop?

ICBM

Yes, if you prefer. The output is switched as well though, it won't stay on when the pedal is on - it's A/B rather than A/A+B, if that makes sense.

peteri

Interesting thread, I have a Guvnor I bought new in 1988/9 from Chappels of Bond Street (remember them?)

Doubt I'll ever sell it - but haven't used it for years, agree with ICBM - sounds great into a Marshall (which was why I bought it back then to boost my Jubilee), into something more Fender - sounds much too thin.


There are much better pedals - my Wampler Plexidrive, Pinnacle or JHS AT sound much fuller and have more range

But well done and enjoy!

prowla

Well, I've alsways considered the Marshall pedals to be at the budget end, ie. at a similar point to the Behringer ones.

Have I got it wrong?

paulphoenix

I picked up an original Guv'nor pedal for cheap this summer and absolutely love it.

Mine's beaten to hell cosmetically but I think the patina looks cool and is a great juxtaposition to my other pedals. 

It still works fine after all the obvious abuse it's taken over the years, but it will get some TLC soon - a new input jack, true bypass 3PDT switch and MOT are on the list for when it ends up on the bench of my local tech. 

I haven't yet opened it up to see if it's made in the UK or a Korean build (as the battery cover/serial number is long gone of course) but I don't really care that much because it sounds just great as is. 

The pedal size/format is a bollock admittedly - but I just had to make room on the board for it once I'd played it.

Flanging_Fred

I got my Guv'nor in 1990 and it's still going strong. I found that for me it works best into large 'open' sounding amps.  Using it with small low watt amps just makes it sound a bit nasal and boxy. Bloody marvelous into a JCM800 or even the old Silverface twin reverb I used to have.

That loop is useful for channel switching the non switching Twin as well.