Marshall Guv'nor

hey guys, maybe you could take away the pic of the GV-2?? there is already a seperate review for that called GV-2 with exactly the same picture, which is very misleading

This is a review for the original not the GV-2 pictured above (thanks harmony central!!)


Very easy to use although altering one pot, will chaneg another

This is great because of it's range
It is both an overdrive and a distortion, so you can acheive both

the pedal itself has never gone wrong, but the cheap plastic inputs have broken

would gig without backup

Palm mutes well, not great for metal though, better for alt./classic rock

used by the pixies

Pretty easy to use - has a couple more pots to mess with than usual - but nothing you can't handle, right?

Pretty hard to get a bad sound - just set the EQ, get the right gain level and set the output volume...

Gibson SG / Fender Strat (for slide) -> home made boost -> Guv'nor -> Yamaha 212 Combo (solid state)

I use it as a general distortion pedal, playing mainly blues rock style numbers. Great sound - probbly the best i've heard for the music I play. Also very natural sounding and with pretty much no unwanted noise. Also with the variation of controls it is pretty flexible, in that it can be used as a stright distortion box, an EQ type pedal or a clean boost.

I bought it new over 10 years ago and its never let me down. 'nuff said.

No contact

Overal probbly the best guitar investment i've made. Absolutly perfect for blues / rock playing. Think early Clapton, Gary moore and some nice albert king / SRV / BB King type sounds in there too.

I compared it with a few other pedals at the time - and maybe if you are into metal or country this might not be for you (though with the EQ it can get many counds).

The only thing i need to do now is get a spare before the second hand price gets too silly!

very easy to use!

old Version, Made in England,good Sound,powerfull for me.Gary Moore Sound!fender Telecaster>Vox Wah Wah>Bluesbreaker als Booster>Boss OD-1>Guv`Nor>Boss DD-5 Delay>Fender Bronco15W combo.for Classic Rock good!

I like it.Marshall Pedals sind Gute Freunde fuer Gitarristen.

I find this pedal to be a no-nonsense, straight ahead stompbox that is damn good at what it does, offering a little versatility without trying to be an all-in-one, multi-voiced piece o' crap.

I have the best of 3 worlds with my setup. My main guitar is a Les Paul Standard, but I also use my '50's re-ish Strat and a Rambow Custom which has a unique blend of Les Paul and strat style characteristics. I run them into a Mesa/Boogie Subway Rocket. The Les Paul is the primary offender, so I'll use IT for the sake of this revue. My main influences are Steve Marriott, Paul Kossoff, Slash, Audley Freed, Warren Haynes... you get the idea. With my rig, though small, it suits my needs to a tee. Of course I have a wonderful, warm, clean sound, and for my creamy neck position Warren/Audley sound, I prefer the drive channel of the Mesa with the pre-volume jacked and the gain around 3 or 4, but the Guv'nor still wins for the more "vintage" sound. For my more agressive, or "lead" sound, I'll switch back over to the clean channel, and it's the Guv'nor ALL THE WAY. If Slash had've discovered this little box before the Jubilee, I suspect history would've been written a little differently. I'm NOT a fan of distortion OR overdrive pedals. They just don't sound REAL to me. I've tried more of them than I can remember, and the only one that held my interest for any length of time untill this, was the VisualSound Route66, but even that faded. The only way that I could make this pedal sound bad, was to back the mid E.Q. knob down too far, but you'd have to be a moron to want to do THAT anyway...the MID is what makes it sound like a guitar! I LOVE this pedal... I WILL own more of them. It is part of my sound forever. DON'T BUY 'EM, CUZ THEY'RE MINE---mmmkay...

I give it a "9" only because I've only owned it for a couple o' months, and have not gigged extensively with it, but I will say this... It's built like a truck, the knobs & jacks are smooth & sure. I have NO reason to believe that it won't last forever.

I can't offer an opinion here. I haven't had to deal with them. If you are a dealer or manufacturer reading this, customer service and the willingness to stand behind your product mean EVERYTHING to me. If YOU, as the seller or manufacturer are not willing to stand behind your product, then why innahell should I risk spending my hard-earned bread on it? There are guys building some of the best stuff in the world in their garages & basements all across America Just ACHING to give me the opportunity to find out how good their stuff is, and to tell my friends. It's a big deal for people like me to be able to buy our beloved gear, and I wanna know that if somethin' goes wrong you're gonna make it right.

I'm a more traditional blues/blues based rock 'n roll guitar guy, and this (as I said before) is MY pedal (so don't buy 'em). This pedal will NOT be lost, and if it were stolen, I'd hunt the SOB down & beat 'em with it (then plug it in & use it)! It really IS a shame that the GV-2 is such a POS, and it is somewhat of an emmbaresment to have it share the name of it's father. I'd desperatly LOVE for Marshall to make a GV-3 made to the same specs as the original Guv-nor, but including the "deep" control from the GV-2 (don't really need the loop featured on the original either).

I love my lil` black brick `o` noise.Plug it in and turn it up.

i play a "custom" (read `home made`) guitar that was once a Peavey Strat with stck humbuckers through a yorkville bloc100G.
I got the Guvnor because i wanted a MARSHALL but didn`t have $1000+ lying around.the sound quality of the pedal gives me a reasonable facsimile of an 80`s model Marshall (not exact but close enough)
i find it pretty decent for loud rock/metal but needs to be played at a reasonable volume, it tends to get a bit fizzy sounding below a certain level.
The three band eq is a bit of a problem seeing as it has that stacking effect (lows effect the mids effect the highs) but if you`ve got the time and patience to play around with it you can get something you like.also the angle of the knobs make it hard to see what you`ve set it to when your gigging.

This mutha has survived the last 16 years of abuse relatively unscathed but for one replaced footswitch that someone else busted by jumping on it (literally),a lost battery cover and a busted up fx loop input(the edge cracked and the silver ring went 'who knows where`).As for using it on a gig without a back up pedal.thats what i did for about 6 years so no worries there.

never dealt with the company.haven`t needed to.

I Play Metal/punk/alt. pretty much anything with a bit of an aggressive edge to it. This pedal has done an excellent job in all the situations i`ve used it. i`ve been playing for about 16 years and i love the fact that it`s been virtually indestructable all this time.the old buggers showing its age now with a bit of rust lifting the paint off but it just keeps on rocking..

It is such a versatile tool; it takes some experimentation to find the right sound. I?ve had mine for two years now and I?m still experimenting with it. I usually keep the gain knob at about 60-75%; the bass knob at about 50%, the high knob at 75%, and I always set the level knob at a volume slightly higher than the clean volume (without the Guv? being engaged), which varies according to other effects I might have in the equation. The mid range knob I tweak up and down to get different tones, but I find that if the bass knob is set at more than ?, it will interfere and drown out the mids.

My primary guitar is an 87? Stratocaster with two humbuckers instead of the 3 singles. I send it to my pedal effects in this order:

Original Crybaby Wah (not Dunlop reissue) > The Guv?nor > Akai Intelliphase analog phaser > 1979 Morley Wah/Fuzz/Volume.

The end of this chain goes to the instrument input of my Randall RG100 (pre-Washburn) half stack. My rack effects run through my amp?s buffered effects loop ? a Rocktron Hush II, an Ibanez UE405 effects processor (analog) and an MXR dual 15-band graphic EQ model 124. I have plenty of EQ-ability with the Ibanez and the MXR, so I really like to set a rich clean tone before any distortion is added. This is the reason I don?t need to get much out of the bass knob on the Guv? so it?s really the mid knob that controls the tone. That?s where the punchy-ness comes from. The Guv?nor does give off quite a hellacious white noise when it?s engaged and you?re not playing ? this is to be expected from a device that adds SO much gain to the signal. I compensate for this by setting the threshold on my Hush II just above that noise level with a quick gate so it will silence the hum if I stop playing suddenly, but if I hold a long sustain, I won?t lose any signal. The Ibanez compression helps a lot with this too. If you can?t live with that hi-gain hum sound, you'll definitely want a compressor somewhere in the mix with your Guv?nor.

I know Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog) uses a Guv', and people have compared me stylistically with him, although I think I sound nothing like him -- it must be the Guv'nor that's making them think he and I play similarly.

Virtually indestructible; they don't make pedals like this anymore. I would trust it to never break down, although I do have a backup (more on that under Overall Rating).

I've never dealt with Marshall. No need to, I've never owned a Marshall amp, and my pedals have never given any problems.

I've been playing guitar for about 15 years. I wanted a Marshall Guv'nor 10 years ago, when I played through one that my friend had, into my amp (the Randall). He used it for Death Metal distortion, which it worked very well for (he currently plays in a death metal band called VORE <www.vore.org> but now uses a Mesa Boogie :mark IV: instead of the Guv'). Some of the previous reviewers said that you can't get metal tones from this pedal, well - they're wrong. At least, you can through my amp. Anyway - this was back in the days before eBay so I went to Musician's Friend to buy one of my own, only to find that they had been discontinued. I bought a Marshall Shredmaster distortion pedal instead. It looked the same as the Guv'nor, the operator at MF said it was the same pedal, only a newer model. Well, it showed up on my door and I plugged it in and it just wasn't as powerful as the real Guv'! The Marshall Shredmaster looks the same as the Guv'nor; it's housing is that black diecast steal, same stomp switch, same red pilot light. BUT - the knobs are labeled from left to right: Gain, Bass, Contour, Treble, Level. AND - there's no effects loop. The Shredmaster is very similar to the Guv', I used it for 8 years, but it's just not as ballsy. Take the Pepsi challenge with the Guv'nor and it's weak successor; the Shredmaster sounds really watered-down in comparison. I would use the SM as a back up distortion pedal, but only in a pinch!

I play a psychadelic 70's style of guitar, I use this pedal mostly for lots of added gain on my leads (samples available for download at our website: <www.jivemarket.com>), but sometimes for a crunchy rhythm phrasing as well. I love it. If it broke or was stolen, I'd go back to eBay and get another, there's usually 2 or 3 up for auction; there are currently 5 of them on eBay (at the time of this writing). Make sure you don't get the "Guv'nor Plus," which is what is pictured at the top of this thread. It's ironic that most technology evolves and get better, more efficient; but with music gear, the vintage stuff is always the best and there's devolution over time. TRUST NOTHING BUT THE ORIGINAL!!!

It takes a little tweaking to get the sound you want, but that is in a good way. After maybe less than half a hour of tweaking around with the knobs, I was able to go from song tone to song tone very easily and quickly.

I got it for that Marshall Head Overdrive thru distortion sound, and that is what it does.
I have played guitar for over 15 years now and have tried most other distortion pedals out there and this is the only one that has the sound of distortion coming from a 100 watt Marshall amp head.
I play a original '63 & '73 Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul. I have about 5 other effects along with the Gov'Nor going into a Gibson 1954 Atlas 80 watt amp head and into a 12'x4 Cab.

It's built tough like a tank and it is definitely gig worthy.

Awesone pedal. I was looking for a pedal that gives the sound of a Marshall and I talked to a salesman at Future Music in Hollywood, instead of trying to sell me one of the hundreds of vintage and new pedals that they had in the shop, he told me to get this one if I can find one out there (because they didn't have any).
The guy is right, it does sound the way he says.
I love this pedal, and will try to find another one if this one ever fails on me (which think it NEVER will).

I do this all in the order the form tells me
good sound; yes, easy to dial in, basically just make the eq flat (all knobs at five) and turn the gain up how much you want, then comes the level...I set the level just a bit louder than the clean guitar sound. BAM.good sound

I'm using a 2001 mexican stratocaster, very rock and roll in a buddy holly way. The guitar goes into the guvnuh', then to an old skool RAT and into a 72' silverface bassman 50 (also very rock and roll) with a crummy old keyboard amp I converted to use as a cabinet, it's got two 10'' made in Canada NO-NAme speakers, the make of the cab is "RAM"
No more noise then you would expect with a distoriton pedal, almost none by itself, were not talking metalzone gain levels here.
This pedal is not weak in the slightest, very uber-tres rock and roll, lotsa balls!
I can get the sound of Van halen pretty well, I mean the pedal basically sounds like a cranked jmc800 with a bit of boost, so the sound of any artist using a big ol' stack is within my reach. It's not an exact replica of the tone, but it is so very close.

the guvnor sounds more real then an MXR dist+. The MXR sounds 1-demensional. Just simple transistor hard-clipping, like a bad fuzz pedal. The guvnor sounds engineered, like a patch on a digital unit. Smooth but not muddy, bright but not grainy. Big 10 for a SS dist pedal. I heard some guy made an album with one of these. I'm keeping it forever 4real!

the only bad thing about it ,is that it gets kind of fizzy when you turn down the volume, unlike the rat

Yeah, it's like a frying pan. The pots are moundted well, excellent build quality, good parts, grounded....it'll never die

Whatever, all big companies are tools. They don't NEED YOU to make money, they can and will say "f@ck the consumer" :D

the pedal is no longer being made anyway

For like english sounding blues, It gives a great tone. In the three years I've been playing, I've only owned a rat, and that's different and good in its own way. For it's job the guvnor is perfect. If it were lost I'd buy one on ebay for a way huge inflated price (like FETS :D) I like it that much. I can compare it only to boutique pedals, like fulltone products or those guys who makes the rumble....they're all on the same echeolon(sp? you know what I mean) werd. I bought this cause some guy told me too, and then I saw one cheap, I owe that guy beer.

Very easy. I love the effects loop built in. Too bad some retard has the wrong picture on this thread. This will definatley harm the Original Black Guv'nors Pride as that silver POS shouldn't even hold the same name!

Gary Moore, Radiohead! Nuff Said. This pedal rock out great saturated gain and overdrives. Nice EQ capabilities. Very usable gain knob with perfect taper for easy to dial in gain.

Solid, Maybe the switch will go some day. I have had this since 93 though and no problems. 10 years and counting. Best $109. I ever spent!!

don't know??

Bought this brand new and it never failed me.

Works great with Fender amps and older Plexi type Marshalls.

Steal it and Die. They just don't make'm like this anymore;(

well when i bought it i didnt have a clue of how to use the thing, but after a while i got the hang of it. i still dont know what the heck the deep does. i bought it used so i got no manual.

I use it through a Fender Deluxe 90 DSP and a Cort G260B. The only problem my amp kinda sucks or the pedal sucks cause when i would turn up the mid or treble a bit to much i'd get a disgusting static noise but it was distortion. So i had to turn the treble and mid down a bit. but after that i got the classic marshall sound. i got the old van halen and aerosmith sound which i thought was cool. its good for solos but i dont care for it when it comes to rythm. and my only problem is for some reason when i turn it off and use the amps distortion it sounds exactly like the pedal so i have to wait about ten minutes for the sound to fade away. i can kinda get that nirvana sound that i like but the pedal is pretty good.

well it looks pretty tough. i dropped it a couple of times. the pedal has to be tough with a name like the Guv'nor!

well i think its a decent pedal to last but ill try it different amps to see how works. i think its a pretty decent pedal. but until i get enough to buy the mxr double shot distortion, this is what i got to work with.