NAMM 2023: Electro-Harmonix has announced the Lizard Queen, an octave fuzz pedal based on a vintage EHX design by JHS Pedals’ Josh Scott that never existed. Wait, what?
Let’s recap a sec: back in February 2022, Josh Scott, accompanied by designer Daniel Danger, lived their wildest effects pedal fantasies and devised their own vintage Electro-Harmonix pedal, the Lizard Queen octave/distortion, for a video entitled “Making A Vintage Electro-Harmonix Pedal!”
EHX head honcho Mike Matthews was so taken by the design, he sought to make it a reality – no doubt emboldened by countless YouTube commentators clamoring to buy the prospective pedal – and that brings us bang up to date.
Like numerous ’70s pedal designs, the Lizard Queen features a fixed gain level for its fuzz, with a blendable Octave control for Octavia-style tones. The Balance knob, meanwhile, takes the tone from the smoother Shadow sound to the nastier Sun setting – these tweaks are more noticeable with higher Octave settings.
The pedal is available in two formats: in EHX’s widely available modern-day Nano enclosure ($99), and a JHS Pedals-exclusive big-box version ($349), which is limited to 1,000 units – 30 of which feature inverse color printing – and comes with lovingly replicated manuals and paraphernalia.
You get all the mod cons with the Nano version – 9V power supply operation, on/off LED – but the big-box features none of that, with just an internal battery and no LED indicator.
For more information on the Nano Lizard Queen, head over to Electro-Harmonix, while JHS Pedals has all the deets on the big-box version.
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