JHS/EHX Lizard Queen

Motter · Post by **Motter** » 11 Apr 2023, 17:17

Just released today, Jorsh has done us the great favor of sharing both sides of the PCB. Blendable octave fuzz with a cool old-school "hand-drawn" PCB, shouldn't be a hard trace at all...

Manfred · Post by **Manfred** » 11 Apr 2023, 21:58

60th op-art.

andregarcia57 · Post by **andregarcia57** » 12 Apr 2023, 00:34

nhalda · Post by **nhalda** » 12 Apr 2023, 05:58

Looks like a Bazz Fuss into a modified Pushme Pullyou with a 100k pot in place of the octave switch in the schematic below. Cool idea.

No idea what transistor/diode pair is in the first stage or the values of the electrolytics, but I'll be breadboarding whenever I get a chance.

joelabbott · Post by **joelabbott** » 12 Apr 2023, 06:53

Very similar to lykwydchykyn‘s “Bazz Me Fuss You.”
viewtopic.php?p=293082&hilit=Bazz+me+fuss+you

Gila_Crisis · Post by **Gila_Crisis** » 12 Apr 2023, 07:03

Yes... Lizard Queen it's an amazing recycling of late 90s/early 2000s DIY knowledge!!!

Caps: considering the idea behind ("70s design" with limited resources) all 100nF and 10uF for the elcos. Whereas I would use at least 100uF for C7 and C8 to have a nice power supply filtering.

rsasgtr · Post by **rsasgtr** » 12 Apr 2023, 08:10

Gila_Crisis wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 07:03 Caps: considering the idea behind ("70s design" with limited resources) all 100nF and 10uF for the elcos.

At least one of the electrolytic caps is 100uF (source: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/cont ... rmat=1500w).

andy-h-h · Post by **andy-h-h** » 12 Apr 2023, 10:28

nhalda wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 05:58 Looks like a Bazz Fuss into a modified Pushme Pullyou with a 100k pot in place of the octave switch in the schematic below. Cool idea.

No idea what transistor/diode pair is in the first stage or the values of the electrolytics, but I'll be breadboarding whenever I get a chance.

Could the diode be a 1n35 of some kind? Just looking at the size and the green and orange bands.

Also threw together a quick layout with a bit of room for changes once this is confirmed - https://vero-p2p.blogspot.com/2023/04/j ... ayout.html

CheapPedalCollector · Post by **CheapPedalCollector** » 12 Apr 2023, 10:52

I have to wonder, no LED... then why use a crappy 3PDT footswitch instead of a Carling DPDT that lasts 50x longer? I mean for $350 you could at least use top shelf parts that were available back then.

Not surprised it's one of Tim's circuits at all.

Whoismarykelly · Post by **Whoismarykelly** » 12 Apr 2023, 12:43

CheapPedalCollector wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 10:52 I have to wonder, no LED... then why use a crappy 3PDT footswitch instead of a Carling DPDT that lasts 50x longer? I mean for $350 you could at least use top shelf parts that were available back then.

Not surprised it's one of Tim's circuits at all.

People are really into a bunch of old parts on the PCB but the switch is likely a quality of life thing. People spending $350 on a pedal nowadays have a lot less tolerance for the giant ka-chunk of a Carling switch. Also less switching pressure means people are less likely to cave in the top of the enclosure - not that many of these will ever be stepped on more than a couple times.

Frank_NH · Post by **Frank_NH** » 12 Apr 2023, 18:46

CheapPedalCollector wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 10:52 I have to wonder, no LED... then why use a crappy 3PDT footswitch instead of a Carling DPDT that lasts 50x longer? I mean for $350 you could at least use top shelf parts that were available back then.

Not surprised it's one of Tim's circuits at all.

I believe these Lizard Queens are $99 (for the nano version) street price according to the EHX website.

What gets me is this description of the pedal (in light of the discoveries above):

"Originally designed by Josh Scott of JHS Pedals and graphic designer, Daniel Danger as a homage to Electro-Harmonix in what Josh and Daniel consider the company’s design heyday of the 1970s, the EHX Lizard Queen Octave Fuzz is a nano-sized version of the pedal brought to life by the engineers at Electro-Harmonix that has all of the tones and vibes of the original circuit design by Josh. The tone is inspired by EHX’s fuzz pedigree with a unique analog octave up circuit that has all the vibe of the original design first featured on the JHS Show in 2022. This creates a completely new and unique EHX fuzz sound we’ve never heard before. To further tell the tale, the pedal is adorned with vintage EHX-inspired graphics designed by Daniel."

Yes, that's right - it's an "original design".

CheapPedalCollector · Post by **CheapPedalCollector** » 12 Apr 2023, 19:41

I wasn't talking about the $99 one, I was talking about the big box one.

One of the selling points of it was "just like it was the 70s". The crap switch is fine for the $99 unit, and it will fail, soft click or not. But If I paid $350 for the big box one, I would not want some crap switch in it regardless if I was going "stomp on it" or not... The whole point of the big box was to be like a 70s EHX pedal, in it's entirety.

Also having quite a few 70s EHX pedals, I've never once seen one "caved" in, it's bent steel, and its hard as hell to deform, or even drill.

soggybag · Post by **soggybag** » 12 Apr 2023, 20:12

This is great, people should thank JHS for injecting some life into this forum!

This is a good idea for circuit. I don’t think I can knock them for using these ideas. It’s not like they are trying to patent anything. He did say it was “original” and it is to some degree. To get the “100% transparent” merit badge he would have to mention Hemo and Tim Escobedo, but I suspect that would have been lost on a lot of people.

lykwydchykyn · Post by **lykwydchykyn** » 12 Apr 2023, 20:46

joelabbott wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 06:53 Very similar to lykwydchykyn‘s “Bazz Me Fuss You.”
viewtopic.php?p=293082&hilit=Bazz+me+fuss+you

LOL yeah, it's not exactly the same but it did give me a laugh when I found out what the basic idea was.

lykwydchykyn · Post by **lykwydchykyn** » 12 Apr 2023, 20:53

soggybag wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 20:12 It’s not like they are trying to patent anything. He did say it was “original” and it is to some degree. To get the “100% transparent” merit badge he would have to mention Hemo and Tim Escobedo, but I suspect that would have been lost on a lot of people.

It would be an excusable omission in ad copy, but given the amount of obscure pedal lore JHS lays down in the videos, it seems rude to not even bring it up.

I don't know when a circuit, or combination of circuits, becomes "original", but I feel like it's apropos to at least acknowledge the shoulders you were standing on. Particularly if you're a profitable commercial interest and the shoulders belonged to amateur enthusiasts freely sharing their discoveries.

Frank_NH · Post by **Frank_NH** » 12 Apr 2023, 21:27

CheapPedalCollector wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 19:41 I wasn't talking about the $99 one, I was talking about the big box one.

One of the selling points of it was "just like it was the 70s". The crap switch is fine for the $99 unit, and it will fail, soft click or not. But If I paid $350 for the big box one, I would not want some crap switch in it regardless if I was going "stomp on it" or not... The whole point of the big box was to be like a 70s EHX pedal, in it's entirety.

Also having quite a few 70s EHX pedals, I've never once seen one "caved" in, it's bent steel, and its hard as hell to deform, or even drill.

Thanks - I didn’t realize there was a $350 boutique version!

Whoismarykelly · Post by **Whoismarykelly** » 12 Apr 2023, 23:29

CheapPedalCollector wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 19:41 I wasn't talking about the $99 one, I was talking about the big box one.

One of the selling points of it was "just like it was the 70s". The crap switch is fine for the $99 unit, and it will fail, soft click or not. But If I paid $350 for the big box one, I would not want some crap switch in it regardless if I was going "stomp on it" or not... The whole point of the big box was to be like a 70s EHX pedal, in it's entirety.

Also having quite a few 70s EHX pedals, I've never once seen one "caved" in, it's bent steel, and its hard as hell to deform, or even drill.

You can issue a lot of complaints beyond it just being a 3PDT. Its mounted to the main board so if it fails you're going to have a much more obnoxious time replacing it regardless of manufacturer. They could have off-board wired the switch but labor costs would go up significantly on that 1000 unit run if they had to increase the amount of wiring work. I think there are dumb things about this pedal but if the worst comment about the actual build is not liking the kind of switch they used then they did a pretty good job.

rafamoraes82 · Post by **rafamoraes82** » 12 Apr 2023, 23:36

Could anyone please post a perfboard layout of this pedal? Would appreciate it a lot!

soggybag · Post by **soggybag** » 13 Apr 2023, 01:50

lykwydchykyn wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 20:53
soggybag wrote: ↑12 Apr 2023, 20:12 It’s not like they are trying to patent anything. He did say it was “original” and it is to some degree. To get the “100% transparent” merit badge he would have to mention Hemo and Tim Escobedo, but I suspect that would have been lost on a lot of people.
It would be an excusable omission in ad copy, but given the amount of obscure pedal lore JHS lays down in the videos, it seems rude to not even bring it up.

I don't know when a circuit, or combination of circuits, becomes "original", but I feel like it's apropos to at least acknowledge the shoulders you were standing on. Particularly if you're a profitable commercial interest and the shoulders belonged to amateur enthusiasts freely sharing their discoveries.

Good points. I’m just giving JHS the benefit of doubt. The origin stories are hard to explain to the non-diy crowd.

I do doubt that he came up with the Push Me Pull you or Bazz Fuss on his own so there is a possibility a lack of honesty and full transparency.

JustinFun · Post by **JustinFun** » 13 Apr 2023, 05:27

By posting both sides of the board he definitely knew that anyone on the internet who remotely cared would know what the circuit was based on within 24 hours. Putting two building block circuits together with a minor tweak to at least one of them just about crosses the line to ‘original design’ for me. It’s not a clone of anything you can or could buy elsewhere.

If you’re looking for complete originality you’d have to discard the mki and mkiii tonebender, the fuzz face, tubescreamer, etc, etc.

Original design here just means ‘not a clone’, I think.