If you're making your own LIzard Queen....

[Mark Hammer]

Some posts will suggest that a regular NPN bipolar transistor with decent hfe will suffice for Q1 (the bazz fuss half of the circuit).  I tried that and could not for the life of me get octaving.  Switching over to an MPSA13 or A14 solved that.  BUT, having said that, I found that it was difficult to get that nice gentler octaving one gets from, say, a Green Ringer, unless you turned the guitar volume down a lot.  It would seem that, unless one is VERY choosy about transistors, the best thing is to alter the gain-adjustment of Q2 so that lower gains can be achieved.  That could include putting a fixed resistor in series with the Q2 emitter pot (e.g., 220R), reducing the value of the base-collector resistor (R3) from 1M to maybe 820K or 680K, or both of those.

Finally, I've probably mentioned it already in another thread somewhere (perhaps not even here), but if one connects C10 directly to the collector of Q2, you have a second "mode" that omits the octaving and gives you pure Bazz Fuss with an additional gain stage.  A different sound palette from the stock Lizard Queen, increasing it's flexibility.  Since it only involves a SPDT toggle, some might be tempted to make it a footswitch.  Although that's electronically feasible, the two modes are not equivalent in volume, with the Q2 collector output being louder than the output from the Q3/Q4 junction.

[duck_arse]

Mark - yer dia mentions C1 as a small ceramic ..... but I think you might mean the un-valued C4.

[Mark Hammer]

Not my drawing/diagram, but I suspect you're correct.  As George Bush said: "Trust, but verify". 

[CamrynKihn]

Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it.