Josh Scott's and Daniel Danger's Nostalgia Fantasy Electro-Harmonix Vintage Tribute Lizard Queen Octave Fuzz becomes a reality!

So just after JHS faux-launched and faked out their highly plausible Bat-Sim pedal, they now launch an actual real version of a total 70’s faux vintage fabrication!

This started back in the Spring of 2021 as a project to conceptualise a classic 70’s style EHX Vintage Big Box - using other pedals from that era as a reference for this new pedal’s format, actual fonts and design. EHX Archivist and fanboy Daniel Dangers teamed up with EHX fanboy Josh Scott to design and actually fabricate 6 concept prototypes based on a new Octave Fuzz design named the Lizard Queen. This pedal was first unveiled in February of last year.

Controls - Volume, Balance (Smooth Sustain > Rasp Character), Octave (Level), [+ Top Edge On-switch on Big Box edition].

While I love that such a pedal exists in the world - I do seriously wonder at the appeal of the limited edition Big Box edition - which is simply gargantuan - and about as un-pedalboard-friendly as any pedal can be - at roughly 4 times the size of the compact edition.

Readers will know how I feel about over-sized enclosures by now - and when you look at how sparsely the actual circuitboard is populated - then it entirely defies logic to have such a large enclosure for a new pedal.

And while I hugely admire all the effort that has gone into the limited Big Box edition - all lovingly hand-crafted with faux period correct packaging, manual and receipt even - I do genuinely question the impractical nature of the pedal’s dimensions - also - the period correct detail of having no status LED - and a separate on/off slider switch. Interestingly the more practical status LED was included on the prototype.

I can’t imagine that the larger edition is going to festoon many pedalboards - but rather be a sort of novelty dust-gathering shelf-ornament / paper-weight or Book-end. I would imagine people who are serious about practical pedalboard considerations would probably buy both versions (one to play and one to display!) - as the Big Box version is just truly impractical and unergonomic in every way. Yes it probably sounds a few tiny degrees better than the $99 SMT Standard Edition - as it uses a number of rare NOS tone-components.

The $350 Big Box price tag isn’t a particular impediment (as can be seen how quickly those 1000 sold out) - in fact all things considered it’s a pretty decent price point for all the work and effort and detail that’s gone into this pedal. Note that there are 30 wildcard inverse colourway Big Box editions - which will be randomly allocated to Big Box buyers.

And like I said earlier - I kind of love that it exists in both varieties  - while its provenance is of course entirely suspect! Guitar gear enthusiasts really are nostalgia freaks - even to a degree that they will buy these entirely impractical and unergonomic faux mementos of a bygone era.

I admire a lot of the early EHX circuits - but not their over-sized formats - which continue to overshadow EHX to the extent that one of their Compact pedals is currently called a ’Nano’, their recent first analog mini Slap-Back Echo was designated ’Pico’, and EHX’s Medium enclosure pedals are labelled ’Mini’ - all entirely out of kilter with the rest of the pedal industry!

Long after Boss and MXR had pioneered the actual Compact pedal form factor - EHX was still pushing those unnecessarily over-sized boxes.

The Lizard Queen is actually a pretty decent sounding Octave Fuzz / Distortion - while there are many alternatives out there that are easily its equal or superior. The popularity of these pedal owes everything to its faux nostalgic looks - people aren’t really talking about how great these sound or perform necessarily.

I will undoubtedly add a standard $99 Lizard Queen edition to the collection at some stage - as this is eminently affordable - also seemingly at £99 in the UK. While on a pedal developmental level this is a very basic retro design - and albeit somewhat dearer, I would much prefer the added smarts of the recent Vahlbruch V2 Octavia fuzz - which I will probably get in advance of the standard edition Lizard Queen.

Already available in the US as I understand and imminent at International dealers!

Where do you sit in and among all this hype - did any of you spring for a Big Box edition? And is it going in on the board!?!