Marshall GV-2 Guv'nor Plus

IF YOU WERE SMART ENOUGH TO BUY THIS PEDAL, YOU WILL EASILY BE ABLE TO SET IT UP. IT'S JUST LIKE DIALING UP AN AMP....BASS, MIDS, HIGHS, EASY AS IT GETS!

I AM PLAYING THIS PEDAL THROUGH A VOX AC-30 INTO THE TOP BOOST CHANNEL. IT GIVES ME AN AUTHENTIC MARSHALL AMP SOUND WHEN PUSHED HARD, VERY FAT AND WARM. THINK AC/DC, BLACKFOOT (TRAIN,TRAIN), OF COURSE ZEPPLIN. THIS PEDAL ISN'T ANY NOISIER THAN OTHER OVERDRIVE PEDALS I HAVE USED, AND I HAVE TRIED MANY! FOR THE TYPE OF CLASSIC ROCK I PLAY THIS PEDAL NAILS IT. BEST OVERDRIVE THAT I'VE USED REGARDLESS OF THE COST. ONLY WAY TO GET IT BETTER FOR ME WOULD BE TO HAVE A MARSHALL AMP. ONE OTHER THING OF NOTE. WHEN THIS PEDAL HAS NO BATTERY IN IT AND NO POWER SUPPLY CONNECTED AND THE PEDAL IS OFF, SOUND IS PASSED THROUGH. THOUGH THIS SOUNDS LIKE TRUE BYPASS, IT IS NOT ACCORDING TO THE MARSHALL TECH I SPOKE WITH. THIS IS WHAT HE HAD TO SAY:
Passive bypass and true bypass are actually not the same. True bypass uses 2 switches, one at the input and one at the output so the effects section is totally disengaged and out of circuit. Passive bypass only disengages the output. The input still splits and feeds the effects circuit but the effected output is physically switched out. Thus you're only hearing the unaffected signal via the output.

THIS PEDAL IS BUILT LIKE A TANK, VERY HEAVY. IF THERE WAS A WEAK LINK IT MIGHT BE THE SWITCH. IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE A CARLING, BUT WORKS FINE SO FAR. I WOULD GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP. ONLY HAD IT A COUPLE OF WEEKS SO............?

THE EMAIL I SENT ABOUT THE TRUE BYPASS WAS ANSWERED VERY QUICKLY SO I'M GUESSING THE SERVICE WOULD BE GOOD ALSO.

I'VE BEEN PLAYING GUITAR FOR OVER 30 YEARS AND GREW UP WITH 70'S CLASSIC ROCK. THIS PEDAL IS A PERFECT MATCH FOR THAT SOUND THROUGH MY AC-30. IF YOU HAVE A TUBE AMP, I BELIEVE YOU WOULD BE HAPPY WITH IT. THE EQ SECTION ON THIS PEDAL IS WHAT I LIKE THE MOST. I DON'T LIKE PEDALS WITH MID FREQ BOOST/CUT DUAL KNOB CRAP.....JUST GIVE ME GOOD OL' AMP CONTROLS AND I'M ON MY WAY. THROUGH A TUBE AMP THIS PEDAL WILL ROCK!!!

relatively easy set all to 5,play a bit and tweak to taste.
the nice thing about this pedal is it has six(6)settings.
in the manuel marshall gives you setting examples, that helps.

Like a lot of players I have been struggling a while to find
MY SOUND. I have tried boss bd-2,od-3,ibanez ts-9,maxon rod-880
($275.00)none of these work for me.It seems that I could always get
the od desired but the problem was the lack of distortion.
well this effect does it in a very nice way. the guv'nor+ just
give you a powerful natural od/dist. FANTASTIC! no don't work
for marshall! I play blues with teles and strats with fender super
champ and deville 4x10 reissue. For now, this is it, for the
price go buy one now you wont be sorry!

DO NOT KNOW

DONT KNOW

I have been playing blues for 12 years.
I have tried a lot of effects, to my taste this thing is a WINNER.

Because of its tone sculpting capability--"Deep", Bass, mid, treble--you have to twiddle with it a bit to get the best sound for different rigs. The manual has some good starting-point suggestions. It can be a bit picky about the rig you use it with.

It's Marshall crunch here, folks. A nice and thick tone that, when tweaked right, can make even single coils sound phat. I use this in the following chain: 535Q wah-->Arion Tubulator O/D-->Marshall Guvnor 2-->Dano EQ-->EB Jr. volume pedal-->Voodoo trem-->Arion delay-->Boss CE-5 Chorus. I use either a Strat with Fat 50s single coils or a Les Paul with Duncan Antiquities. It sounds best with the Paul, although it sounds very good with the strat too. My amps are a couple of 15 watt class A tube amps (1x12) or a Roland JC. This pedal sounds the best with the tube amps. If you want that classic Marshall drive to crunch, this pedal delivers. I did a side by side with a Proco Rat 2 and the Marshall has a very similar tone but a better eq so you can adjust the frequencies better--that's why I bought this one instead. The only thing I wish this pedal had was more sustain without having to turn the gain knob up so high--i.e. when I set a good rhythm sound (just the right amount of gain for my tastes--about 11:00) there's not enough sustain for leads. This is especially true for my strat, although the Paul could use a hair more also. If I put it up to about 2:00, then I get some pretty good sustain going on, but it's too saturated for rhythm etc. I usually set my crunch rhythm with it and add my Arion O/D to it for more sustain, although this isn't always enough.
I think this pedal's best use is for Hard Rock, although at lower gain settings it can do a nice blues thing too. Overall, I like the general tonality of the pedal, and so I give it an 8.

Built very sturdy and has held up great on my pedal board for the past two years +/-.

I pretty much said everything I wanted to above. If you want solid Marshall crunch, this pedal delivers. If I had to replace it, I'd probably check other pedals against this, and if they offered better sound, I would probably go with them--but they would have to cover that Marshallesque Hard Rock vibe equally as well and then go beyond that to a better sound and sustain.

SOLID STATE AMP OWNERS LOOK HERE!!

the pedal has 6 knobs. volume, gain, bass, middle, treble and the unique deep setting. 5 minutes of tweaking is all it takes really if uve used eq before. the manual is clear and theres no trouble running it.

im using a vox ad 50 valvetronix (not a valve amp) and a squier telecaster custom with humbuckers. Most of the reviews here are from tube amp owners and i was worried reading them b4 i bought the pedal because i thought it might be bad on ss amps. but its NOT! U may not be able to get tube type lead sounds but the lead you can get from this is the best ive got on my solid state. and the general distorion is clear, versitile and when u strum power chords it actually does sound like a marshall stack. u can get classic rock sounds and metal sounds and other less gainy sounds which i havnt tried yet. the deep setting is really cool. gives the sound real beef like normal bass but without drowning out the higher frequencies.

seems sturdy and built to last like most marshall products.

not sure, havnt dealt with company services. but i think there is a gud service available.

i play classic rock, blues, metal, indie stuff. i'd say this is perfect for classic rock. guns n roses, ac/dc etc. if ur a solid state owner, this is probably the best u can get for the classic rock tone. if ur thinking of getting it, do it now!! lol


email me 4 qs

With all the knobs it makes it a little confusing, but after a few minutes with tinkering with it you figure out what does what, and how to get the sound you want.

I have a fender mexican strat, gibson flying v and a knockoff lespaul. I also have a Marshall JCM900 100 watt half stack and a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I got the verb because I needed an amp for practicing and small gigs. But when I got it I realized something was missing.... Distortion. There is nothing like that Marshall distortion. I have tried countless pedals to try to emulate the Marshall distortion but nothing came close. So I tried out a Guv'nor. I brought it home and put my strat through a switcher one to my JCM900 distorted and one to the Guv'nor and Verb. After about 10 minutes with messing around with it....I found it! MY long lost Marshall distortion!!! Trust me, when you want that Marshall distortion there is no exeption. It sounds exactly like my JCM900. So if that is the sound you are looking for, buy this pedal. If you are looking for any other Marshall type distorion sound this could proboly handle it too.

I think it would hold up to what I will throw at it. The switch feels funny. I don't know if that is the way it's made of just because I bought it used, either way I still think it can hold up. I don't use backups for anything.

I play mostly rock. Alot of chili peppers and classic rock and this is everyhtign I could have hoped for and more. I have been playing about 4 years and used alot of crap stuff and this is worth every penny. I own alot of other pedals to name a few: Dunlop crybaby, danelectro Fab Overdrive, Phase 90, Small clone, Dod Stereo Phaser, Digitech digidelay, and a Russian Big Muff. If anything were to happen to my entire pedal board this would be the first pedal I replaced.

Very easy to use. If you can use a Boss MT-2, you can use this. Similar knob set-up where the tone knobs have 'sub knobs' on top of them. It has a 'deep' knob that gives it a lot of low-end punch like a Marshall cabinet that is kind of cool.

I use a Carvin custom DC 127C into a Carvin X100B tube amp. As to sound quality of the pedal, this is THE sound I have been searching for. The distortion has a depth to it that I've never heard another pedal match. It really does sound like a JCM 800 head. When I compared it to my MT-2, it was so apparent how thin and tinny the Boss distortion is. If you think you've heard a great distortion pedal, you haven't until you've played the Guv'nor Plus.

Now, similar to a Marshall, it has more midrange than a lot of distortion pedals. You can dial it out using the EQ on either the pedal or your amp, but it actually sounds better with a little mid-range.

There is a little hum, maybe a little less than average. I didn't find that it sucked any tone at all when by-passed. The 'Deep' knob in the EQ section gives it a heavy punch like a Marshall cab. It sounds good on my Marshall solid-state combo and FANTASTIC on my tube head and 4x12 cab.

This pedal is THE thing to get nearly any 80's hard rock or metal band. It's very easy to get an early Metallica (Ride the Lightning, Kill' em All), Scorpions, Ratt, Dokken, etc. Of course many of these bands used JCM 800's. With a little tweaking, you can get more modern metal sounds. By backing off the gain to about 60%, you can get AC/DC-type sounds. Back off a little more, you can get ZZ Top. I found this pedal to be very versatile and the tone makes you want to play it for hours. It is very easy to do it on stage also. Simply dial down the gain. The EQ tends to not need much adjusting.

I have played many, many distortion pedals over the las 15 years, but this is one that will NEVER leave my pedal board again. I normally don't give out tens, but this category gets a 10. (I'd turn it up to 11 if possible)....

Solid metal casing and switch. Very heavy, seems like it will last a while. I'd use it without a backup.

Don't really know.

I play everything from ZZ Top to Killswitch Engage and all points in between. I've been playing over 15 years and this is THE distortion pedal for me. If it were lost or stolen I'd be buying another one the next day. The only two drawbacks are that the battery cover has a screw in it which is annoying, and that it has a little too much midrange for some of my more extreme distortion needs.

What should I say, very easy

Epi LP, Korg Tuner, MS Guv2, MS Jackhammer, Zoom2020, Peavey Bandit.
I use it for old school rock like Kiss, Status Quo... it's perfect for that. A little "bassy", but I can correct it with the Zoom2020.

No problems.

...

Good for my kind of music, but nothing's perfect. So it's a 9.

It only took me about 5 minutes of working with this pedal to get a great tone out of it. If you have a clear idea of what you want, it can be found from this pedal. I'm only giving it an 8 because although it was easy for me, people who may not be sure about the sound they want may be looking for quite a while (with the built in equalizer giving thousands of options).

This is where this pedal really, really shines. I've used this pedal with many different amps and it always shines brilliantly. The best distortion pedal on the market. The only thing that comes close too it is the SansAmp GT2, but you can find this much cheaper. I've heard people complain the pedal is noisy, I haven't had a problem. I use a LesPaul with humbuckers and with a bit of fiddling with the pedal and my guitar and my amp I get anything I want too out of it. From harsh fuzz like Weezer's Pinkerton, all the way up to the Adam Jones crunch - this pedal does it!

I have and will probobly again gig without a backup with this. I have a lot of different distortions, but this one has held up the best. Definitly gives BOSS a run for it's money. It doesn't have a breakable battery cover (you hear me DOD?). The only vulnerable spot is the footswitch, but treat it with care and it should outlast you.

Never dealt with them before.

I play progressive rock and this pedal is my main distortion. I am very, very satisfied with this unit. I played many different distortions (and have many other distortions). The only one that compares is the SansAmp gt2, and even then, it's very close. Hook this baby up to a Tube Amp and have fun!

It's pretty easy to use. Just like thing with an EQ, it's good to not look at where the dials are pointing when you're trying to find a good tone the first time.

My guitars are a Gibson SG Special and a MIM Strat. I've regularly played this through a Peavey keyboard amp; directly into a Tascam 4-track; and into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It sounds different with each application due to the vastly different frequency responses of the amps & four track, but I was pleased with all the situations. The one problem I keep having is there's not enough treble! The pedal is naturally mid-rangey, with lots and lots of bass to dial in. There's treble, mind you, but I always have to keep it dimed and I often wish I could turn it higher when playing single-string stuff. If you're a treble guy I wouldn't really recommend it. Despite that, I still enjoy the sound, and it's great for full chunky rhythm. Sometimes it sounds a little harsh while palm-muting, but I just turn the presence down on the Fender HRD (which sounds like it contradicts the not-enough-treble thing, but this harshness is separate and higher in frequency (in the presence region) than treble the tone I'm looking for).

The pedal is reminiscent of 70's hard-rock, ("Black Betty," Judas Priest, Jethro Tull, everyone had that sound) but fuller sounding. I don't really like that thin 70's tone-knob-down humbucker sound, and this pedal does remind me of it, but I like this pedal. I'm sure you could get those tones if you want though.

I haven't had any problems with it at all for the 5-6 years I've owned it, but I don't play in a band and gig with it.

I grew up on 90s alternative, and I'm just an overall rock and roll fan. I've been playing guitar about 6 years. The distortion level is comparable to the BOSS DS2, but the Guv'nor has less of a hard edge and a more classic Marshall tone (obviously..). It doesn't do the "on the verge of overdrive" blues thing so don't even try. What it does well is the saturated Marshall sound, which is what it promises. Others have said that this is a versatile pedal, but to me it's a one trick pony. It's a pleasant sounding pedal, sounds good at low and high volumes with a very rounded tone. What would make it a perfect pedal to me is good performance in the threshold-of-overdrive region, and MORE TREBLE!

This unit is very easy to use, no manual actually needed. However, the manual provided is very clear & simple to understand. Simply turn the desired knobs & tweak the sound is all that is required. The knobs are a little crowded, but that is good after you get them set, it keeps everything compact & easy to see at a glance.

I have played the guitar over 25 years, have played just about every distortion pedal made. I have said that to say this: The sound this pedal produces is incredible. I honestly do not know how else to describe it. It sounds just like a big huge Marshall stack with all the pump & bottom end. You can tweak it & get your desired sound. I have read reviews where the pedal didn't distort enough. OK, first of all, this is a professional caliber pedal, it is designed for use with a band. The louder you play the better it sounds. When playing alone in your bedroom, no it will not have that saturated sound. However, that overly saturated sound these people are seeking sounds horrible when with a band anyways. I have heard so many bands where the guitar player has this heavily saturated sound, sounds good 2 feet from the amp, but get out front & guess what? You can't even hear him! He just jams away thinking he is the guitar king, but nobody in the audience out front can even hear him! It is because the signal is drwoning in saturation, gets lost in the mix, & never makes it out front. Running through the PA won't help either. The mids are way too low, the sound is too thick & muddy. These players think they have to have their sound swimming in saturation to play. Well, get used to playing less saturated, then play out with a band, & watch how quickly your sound lights up! Another problem I see in these reviews, people are lacking a major unit in their set up: a compressor. Put a compressor in front of this (or any distortion pedal) & listen to the improvement immediately! Never under estimate a compressor's worth. Also, when taking a solo, simply boost your volume & treble/mids to get your sound out front. More distortion will not do it. I get a very good sound using this set up in order as follows (just my opinion, but it works great for me):

Guitar (1979 Les Paul Custom and 1950's reissue Fender Stratocaster
Boss TU-2 Tuner (daisy chain other effects from this unit also)
Boss CS-2 Compressor
Cry Baby Wah Wah
Marshall Guvnor plus
Boss GE-7 EQ
Marshall 5212 Amp (use a amp stand to get the sound up & out)

I use the EQ to boost my solos, then turn it off while doing rhythm. There is no need for more aturation, this set up works trust me!

Now, you are probably saying, "if this thing sounds so awesome why just a 9 rating?" Well, because the pedal is noisey. Sounds great when playing, but there is noise when you stop. It is nothing a noise suppressor would not fix, but I feel Marshall could have made this thing less noisey, pure & simple.

This unit is very well constructed, the casing & housing is metal, the knobs are made well. The Achillies heel on this unit is the on/off switch you stomp. Very very poor design, it will not take lots of abuse for sure. The casing, knobs, etc. are built as well as a Boss, but the switch is not the same caliber. I would not gig without a back up using this or any distortion pedal, but I bet when this thing gives me trouble it will be with the switch.

Never dealt with them.

I am currently playing in a classic rock band, doing Judas Priest, Kiss, Van Halen, etc. This pedal matches that perfectly! I love the sound this thing produces, it makes any amp sound like a Marshall stack. The only problems I see with this unit is the fact it is noisey & I do not trust the footswitch. Other than that, it is great! I recommend this pedal very highly, it is true Marshall tone & quality for sure.