Handbuilt in Germany by a small boutique builder, the Empty Head Falling Man is a simple but intriguing lofi echo pedal that will tickle the fancy of creative guitarists chasing character and texture.
Built around the PT2399 chip, an obsolete component found in Karaoke machines that’s become incredibly inspiring for boutique builders, the Falling Man is an intuitive pedal that invites experimentation rather than control. It does so through four controls sporting unexpected names. Let’s see what they do:
- Stride is the top know that controls the Delay time.
- The Pace knob does two things at once: sets the Delay Feedback but also the Delay Level
- Fall is the only Modulation knob, delivering a more intense effect at lower settings.
- Finally, the Stumble/Fall toggle is a mysterious control that makes things sonically more intense, with the modulation becoming more affected by pitch variations and also more pronte to get out of control dynamically.
The On/Off switch was also given a peculiar name (Parachute), but it’s not clear if that’s referred to when the pedal is on or off.
Have a listen to what this stompbox can do in the videos below.
