Got mine today. I like it! Here's my first impressions:
- Bass response/bass retention is excellent, as you might imagine.
- This is a very high gain pedal. It sounds more Muff-like than Fuzz Face/Octavia. I believe it's based on the Bazz Fuzz circuit, which I didn't think was so high gain. As such, it excels at the things you love about a Big Muff: huge sounding chords, eternal sustain.
- I find it to be an extremely bright sounding pedal. With the Tone all the way up it is quite piercing. I find I am really liking the Tone knob to be around 10 o'clock so far (again, first impressions).
- The Sun setting changes the clean sound by pumping the bass and treble (effectively scooping mids) and this makes it sit very nicely blended. The Shadow setting uses an unaffected clean sound, and I find myself using less blend to "sit it" in the mix.
- The Sun and Shadow setting also change some of the tone structure of the fuzz and it's not just brighter/darker. The Shadow fuzz side is a little more squared off and fuzzy and the Sun setting sounds more squishy and distortion-y.
- I find the Octave to be very strange. I never played the Lizard Queen so I don't know if it's the same. It's quite weak unless the knob is turned way up and you're playing with a lighter touch (or turn your bass volume down). Even solo-ing the neck pickup and rolling the tone off doesn't really make it "pop" like your classic Octavia-style fuzz. It does add a lot of texture and character and I like having it higher than I thought I would. Here too the Sun and Shadow setting change the tonality of the octave with the Shadow octave being more cutting and a little splatty.
- Using a voltage reducer got a lot more flexibility out of the pedal, but it was very subtle. You get a little low more low-end with a saggier battery, I think because of the EQ on the blend knob in Sun mode.
I'll play with it in the Doom/Stoner band and see how it goes but I think it's a winner. I think it would be incredible on a downtuned guitar given how bright it is. If modders are interested, I think there's a big opportunity to add a second cap as a switchable option to add a lower gain setting. A bit lower gain I think would make it a little more fuzz and little less distortion.