A voltage regulator for controlling over-voltage conditions in an electrical generator by rapidly discharging the generator field winding current into a discharge resistor upon the detection of the over-voltage. A field discharge transistor is switched by a soft switching circuit to direct the generator field winding current to the discharge resistor. A hysteresis circuit detects when a point of regulation voltage exceeds a first threshold triggering the discharge of the generator field winding current. The hysteresis circuit also detects when the point of regulation voltage goes below a second lower threshold and triggers the field discharge transistor to bypass the discharge resistor and return to a normal mode.