Marshall Guv'nor (old style)

[pedrodelawasp]

Just won an '89 Marshall Guv'nor (one of the black ones with red stripes) on e-bay for £40 (around $63).

Heard a guy I know who plays bass for a band called 'el dog' playing through one of these and his sound is amazing. Check out the song 'rhythm tooth' if you can!

Was wondering what you folks out in talkbass land thought of the guv'nor. What have been your experiences, good and bad? (that sounds like the sort of question i should've asked before buying!).

One more thing: anyone tried a crowther hot cake? any good? what's it useful for?

[Gashaponcito]

Originally Posted by pedrodelawasp

One more thing: anyone tried a crowther hot cake? any good? what's it useful for?

I don't know a lot about the hot cake but Prunes & Custard gets a lot of love here check it out!

[fretlessman71]

I loved borrowing my guitarist's old Guv'nor for hard rock gigs. Alas, he sold it out from under me, the cad... great pedal for bass OD/dist IMHO.

[gibsualdo]

It's rumoured that Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine, used one on their first (self-titled) album. Also, some claim his current home-made distortion box, is based on the original Guv'nor circuit.

Never actually tried one on bass myself.

[crapusername]

TBH I found the results quite disappointing. I found that through my rigs it dropped bottom end, so i don't use it with bass any more.

[OptimusPrime]

Originally Posted by crapusername

TBH I found the results quite disappointing. I found that through my rigs it dropped bottom end, so i don't use it with bass any more.

Yeah, I wanted one for 2 years. Once I got it, I was completely disappointed and sold it after like 2 weeks. Tried bi-amping to add back some bottom. Nothing worked. It just takes away all the βΘИΞКЯŲŜĦÏИĞ.

[Bassmingo]

I've used the guv'nor II as my main dist/od ever since it came out. you can dial back in the low end with the deep/bass controls. i love it, you should check it out.

[katri]

I have one and it's pretty good, I need to get a blender to stop the complete loss of low end.

[GeoffByrne]

Originally Posted by Bassmingo

I've used the guv'nor II as my main dist/od ever since it came out. you can dial back in the low end with the deep/bass controls. i love it, you should check it out.

+1

[basslyon]

i use one religiously!

you do need an ls2 or biamping or something to retain your bottom end. It's gnarly as hell.

The timmy C thing isn't a rumour. he definitely used one on their first album.

If you go to my old's band's site myspace.com/seraphynperth and play the video "complex" you'll hear it in the intro but that was before i used an ls-2 with it so there's no bottom.

[pedrodelawasp]

[quote=basslyon;6514877]i use one religiously!

you do need an ls2 or biamping or something to retain your bottom end. It's gnarly as hell.

QUOTE]

I'm using an LS-2 at the moment with an EHX Little Big Muff Pi to blend the clean and distorted signals. Find it gives more definition, especially when i'm hitting some chords. It also avoids the 'THUNK' you get when switching the LBM on.

Go to www.myspace.com/eldogmusic and listen to their track 'Rhythm Tooth' (which i mentioned earlier) to hear Jim Mango using a Guv'nor on his bass. Love his sound.

I'd love a prunes and custard (pretty sure it's the source of some of Justin Meldal Johnsen's overdriven sounds), but they're pretty expensive when they come up, eh?

Thanks for the feedback everybody.

[Dave M]

The deep control on the Guv Plus (GV-2) does help quite a bit. But, if you've got an original Guv'nor, here's the trick that the boys originally designed for...

Use the loop of the pedal.

Put an EQ pedal in the loop, and make it happen.
Even with a plain old Boss EQ pedal it really brings in the frequency range you want.
To my ears, this works even better than the GV-2, but it does take much more real estate.

[bongomania]

The loop is just an insert after the effect circuit. Putting an EQ in the loop is no different than putting an EQ after the pedal. Boosting the lows with an EQ can help by bringing up the low mids in a nice boomy way, but the actual lowest lows will still be missing. That said, I found the original Guv'nor at a low drive setting didn't lose too much of the low end- it was only with higher drive levels that the lows went away.

[Mark Olson]

I had an original Guv'nor. It's decent, but I've just got pedals that sound better, to me anyway. I sold the Guv'nor over eBay. Actually, I think my Guv'nor went to basslyon (correct me if I'm wrong).

[Dave M]

Originally Posted by bongomania

The loop is just an insert after the effect circuit. Putting an EQ in the loop is no different than putting an EQ after the pedal. Boosting the lows with an EQ can help by bringing up the low mids in a nice boomy way, but the actual lowest lows will still be missing.

True, but it's nice to stomp on just one switch and be done with it.

That said, I found the original Guv'nor at a low drive setting didn't lose too much of the low end- it was only with higher drive levels that the lows went away.

+1

[ga_edwards]

I love the sound of mine, but like you, found that I lost the low end.

I have now gone back to using a multi (various reasons) - the new zoom B9.1ut, the drives are much better than my old GT6B. Only problem with it is distortions and amp models are in the same module, so I can't have a gritty base sound and add overdrive over the top.

However it has a switchable and blendable fx loop. So I tried the guv'nor in it. Fantastic. I can leave the pedal switched on and use one of the zoom's stomp buttons to switch it in and out.

Yes, it is essentially doing the same as a blender as mentioned previously, just a bit more expensive and with more bells and whistles

[katri]

also this pedal is built like a tank, stands up to much abuse on gigs and tours, i do love it.

+1 on the bass loss only being on higher gain settings

[headtrip762]

Ive actually been thinking about picking it up again. If I remember right its been about 8 years since Ive used it, but I had it dialed in and it worked pretty damn good. For a geetard pedal.

[Mr. Pickle]

I don't know what all this low end loss is about.


I have one. On bass, it's awesome. Not so favorable for guitar, though.