Simple Guvernator mods

[HamishR]

What with the current noise about the original Marshall Guv'nor, Drivemaster, Shredmaster etc being made by Marshall again I thought I should have one more try at a Guv'nor. An original Guv'nor was the first drive pedal I ever used at a gig way back when they were first released. I always liked the Guv'nor but felt it lack a bit of balls and the high end was a tad strangled. So with my new Guv'nor I thought I'd try and fix that.

So I changed R3 to 1K and C3 to 330nF. And as I have done in the past I just left C12 off entirely. I also swapped the clipping LEDs for two pairs of diodes but that's more just because I don't like the sound of LEDs as clipping diodes.

And that's it. Simple. And for me it has really worked - my Strat now sounds muscular and chunky on the stock single coil bridge pickup. The 335 sounds like I could play Foo Fighters riffs all night long through my small tweed amp! It's the kind of sound I was hoping to get from a Friedman pedal or Angry Charlie but never did. For an OD with 3-band EQ it has a surprisingly small parts count. Probably about 10% of the Friedman! And the simple mods have made it a much more useful pedal for me.

Anyone else got fave mods for a Guv'nor?

 

[cdwillis]

I had some of the same complaints with my stock build, but I never got around to tweaking things. I think replacing R5 680k with a 1m and c5 220pf with a 100pf like the Crunch Box would help with the muted high end. That would take the low pass filter from about 1khz to 1.5khz. Maybe not a huge effect, but noticeable. I planned on doing that then switching R3 to 3.3k. That would lower the high pass filter down to around 500hz like your mod just with less overall gain, but the gain would be increased in the second section so I think it would even out. I might get it out and tinker with it tonight.

 

[HamishR]

Most of my initial testing was done with a Strat and 335. Yesterday I used the Les Paul and wow - it's awesome! The extreme high end is interesting though - I kinda see why there was a cap at C12. Maybe a tiny cap there would be useful, around 22pF or so... Sometimes there are some very high frequency sounds which are a bit weird. But I suspect most guys who have been playing in bands for as long as me won't hear them!

I also just built a Shredmaster with similar mods and it's very cool. They are great pedals which only need a little fettling to turn them into something really useful. I guess a few things have changed since they were first brought out. The size of amps we use has gone down a lot in the past 30 years. Fewer guys play through a JCM800 and a quad box, which is what I guess these pedals were designed for. My amps are all 1x12 combos, ranging from 10 to 40W. So a little more thump helps.