About

My name is Erich Hochstrasser and I began noodling around with musical electronics in 2007. During my first semester at the Berklee College of Music I began growing extremely curious about the world of modular synthesizers and the DIY subculture within that world. My first project was a Paia Fatman synthesizer kit and once that successfully made noise I was hooked. Having played guitar since elementary school, it was only natural that my soldering iron would eventually go on to explore pedals and tube amps as well.

In the spring of 2017 I had an itch to build a more tweakable envelope filter and from that curiosity came the Disco Terrapin. Not wanting to go through the process of breadboarding, designing artwork, and laying out circuit boards for a single pedal build, it felt like a good time to begin sharing some of the things I made beyond my own pedalboard. Once the funky sounds started quacking out of my new pedal, Hochstrasser Electronics was officially born. 

Repairing pedals, amps, and synthesizers is an unavoidable component of building pedals, amps, and synthesizers. I’ve found the process of reviving broken gear just as rewarding as building various devices for sonic exploration. In recent years I’ve restored a rusted out Ampeg B15, rebuilt a Hammond M3, and gotten countless other things that make noise past their ailments and back into working order. At one point I even tackled the long and complicated journey of building a theremin from scratch. 

Currently located in the Sandpaper Factory in Rockland, MA, on any given day I can be found soldering new capacitors into an old amp, screen-printing pedal boxes, building speaker cabinets from solid walnut, or trying to cleanly play my favorite Phish licks while testing something on the bench. I maintain a constantly-evolving stock of pedals that I design and build in addition to taking in repair work. If you’re interested in test-driving pedals or have something that needs to be fixed, don’t hesitate to reach out. 

And in case you were wondering, it’s pronounced hawk-straw-sir.