Born from a unique collaboration between EHX, JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott, and graphic artist Daniel Danger, the Lizard Queen was a limited-edition project from the start, with a planned two-year production run that wrapped up in 2025.
Josh Scott, known for his deep dive into vintage circuits, crafted the Lizard Queen’s transistor-based octave fuzz to evoke the raw, psychedelic edge of EHX’s early days, blending it with the kind of reliability and clarity modern players crave. The pedal’s striking artwork by Danger, paired with its compact Nano chassis, made it an instant collector’s item, and its discontinuation has only fueled its cult status, with remaining units selling out fast at steep discounts (some as low as $37 from the original $99 price tag). I had a notice from Sweetwater that highlighted this pedal during the final sale, I ordered it new for $39 with free shipping.
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| My Demo setup, touch to enlarge |
The Lizard Queen’s sound is a love letter to fuzzy, octave-up chaos. Its simple three-knob layout—Volume, Octave, and Balance—lets you dial in everything from thick, saturated fuzz to soaring, harmonic-rich leads with a vintage bite. The Octave control pushes that classic Jimi Hendrix-style upper-octave shimmer, while the Balance knob blends the fuzz and octave effects for nuanced textures. Built with EHX’s signature quality, it’s a pedal that feels as good underfoot as it sounds through a cranked amp. While it was designed with guitarists in mind, its versatile circuit laid the groundwork for its successor, the Lizard King, a bass-optimized evolution released in June 2024 with added features like a Blend knob and a Tone control for low-end punch.
MY DEMO EXPERIMENTS
I loved a lot of Jimi Hendrix’s music and I wondered HOW he created those sounds. I did my demo of the Lizard Queen using a Marshall amp so the basic platform I was playing on had that sort of tone already. The addition of compression before the Queen and slow deep Chorus effect after her put my jam solidly into the Hendrix-styled, tone camp, even using a Les Paul with Humbuckers.
When I first powered up the Lizard Queen it seemed harsh and had too much treble but after a few quick adjustments, the tone and the fun took over, I was off into the world of rock-noodling. Suddenly two hours of my life disappeared - whooooosh - lost in the land of the lizard.
This pedal can be fat or piercing, your choice. This is fuzz with serious color and deep texture, I like it a lot - punch footswitch ON and wakeup your listeners. Hendrix-esque is as close as I can come to describing the tone. I've tried a lot of octave and fuzz boxes from the past but never connected with them like the Lizard Queen.
The pedal is now discontinued so if you want to give it a try you’ll need to grab one from the used market. Judging from the powerful and classic character it is capable of, this pedal is destined to be iconic and sought after for its unique, accessible, palette of tonal colors.
EPILOGUE
In the end, the Lizard Queen stands as a brilliant snapshot of collaboration and creativity, merging EHX’s legacy with JHS’s modern pedalcraft. Though its production run is over, its influence lives on in the Lizard King and the hands of players lucky enough to snag one of the Queens. If you’re chasing a pedal that blends retro soul with contemporary precision, the Lizard Queen is a rare beast worth hunting down.
Thanks for reading High on Technology, Good Music To You!
©September 2025 by Mark King, it is not ok to copy or quote without written permission from the author.
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