Made On Earth for Rising Stars
The Electro-Harmonix Story
Will be published approx. on 6. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
548 pages
979-8-9924838-5-7 (ISBN)
Description
Follow the untold story of how one of America's greatest companies changed our culture and our music with their unorthodox devices.
In 1968, Mike Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix (EHX) and began assembling a worldwide team of the most talented engineers, creatives, and musicians he could find - people who would create imposing metal boxes with odd names that changed the sound and attitude of music forever. But the story of Electro-Harmonix is far more than the story of a company and its products. It's a testament to what can happen when someone trusts the people around them to do their best work.
Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story is the definitive visual history - a historic collaboration between EHX, JHS Pedals, Third Man Books, and archivist Daniel Danger. This massive book explores everything from Mike Matthews himself to the workers on the floor, from circuit designers to those seeking to cure death, from flying machines to mass ESP experiments. Experience never-before-seen relics, prototypes, documents, photos, and stories. Featuring exclusive interviews with Jack White, J Mascis, John Mayer, Wes Borland, Billy Corgan, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Adrien Belew, Vernon Reid, and more.
In 1968, Mike Matthews founded Electro-Harmonix (EHX) and began assembling a worldwide team of the most talented engineers, creatives, and musicians he could find - people who would create imposing metal boxes with odd names that changed the sound and attitude of music forever. But the story of Electro-Harmonix is far more than the story of a company and its products. It's a testament to what can happen when someone trusts the people around them to do their best work.
Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story is the definitive visual history - a historic collaboration between EHX, JHS Pedals, Third Man Books, and archivist Daniel Danger. This massive book explores everything from Mike Matthews himself to the workers on the floor, from circuit designers to those seeking to cure death, from flying machines to mass ESP experiments. Experience never-before-seen relics, prototypes, documents, photos, and stories. Featuring exclusive interviews with Jack White, J Mascis, John Mayer, Wes Borland, Billy Corgan, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Adrien Belew, Vernon Reid, and more.
Reviews / Votes
"Mike Matthews is such a colorful character... he's the first kind of guy who actually had notoriety outside of the music business."-Vernon Reid
"The Big Muff is the only distortion pedal I've ever really known."
- Jack White
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
TN
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
full color photography throughout
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 203 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
1701 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-9924838-5-7 (9798992483857)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Joshua Heath Scott is the creator and president of JHS Pedals. His YouTube series, The JHS Show, has garnered millions of views from audiences spanning the globe.
Daniel Danger is an illustrator and print-maker living in the woods of Massachusetts. The son of a middle school art teacher and a professional potter, he was probably never going to be an accountant. His explanation of his own work is borderline nonsense and involves overlapping timelines, references to SIERRA point n' click adventure games, number stations in the desert oscillating whispered conversations, the death of ghosts at the hands of foliage, giant trauma shadow beings born of kidnapped children that drip wolf shadows, and 1920s childrens books. He is the lost boy-king of Ghost Island, and a broken brain'd hoarder of vintage music gear, old toy ambulances, and bad hardcore records. Him and his wife have a dog named after noted character actor Toby Huss and a daughter named Dorothy. Daniel plays or has played in the following bands: Caspermask, A City Safe From Sea, The Saddest Landscape, IDNOCLIP, Squall, XcrimedogX, & Some Stranger.
Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist who has written for Rolling Stone, MOJO, FLOOD, the LA Times, Guitar World, Revolver, eMusic, the Jewish Daily Forward and dozens of other print and online outlets. Epstein has worked as a producer at VH-1, an editor at Revolver magazine and the now-defunct ShockHound.com, and is the author of Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s,Honky-Tonk Tourist: The Night Buck Owens Almost Got Me Killed, and 20th Century Pop Culture. He is also the co-author of The Captain & Me: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson with Ron Blomberg, and Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World's Greatest Guitarists and Vintage & Rarities: 333 Cool, Crazy and Hard to Find Guitar Pedals with Eilon Paz. An avid historian of music, baseball and pop culture, Epstein has been dubbed "The Bangs-ian Herodotus of 70s Baseball" by Cardboard Gods author Josh Wilker. Epstein lives in Greensboro, NC.
Daniel Danger is an illustrator and print-maker living in the woods of Massachusetts. The son of a middle school art teacher and a professional potter, he was probably never going to be an accountant. His explanation of his own work is borderline nonsense and involves overlapping timelines, references to SIERRA point n' click adventure games, number stations in the desert oscillating whispered conversations, the death of ghosts at the hands of foliage, giant trauma shadow beings born of kidnapped children that drip wolf shadows, and 1920s childrens books. He is the lost boy-king of Ghost Island, and a broken brain'd hoarder of vintage music gear, old toy ambulances, and bad hardcore records. Him and his wife have a dog named after noted character actor Toby Huss and a daughter named Dorothy. Daniel plays or has played in the following bands: Caspermask, A City Safe From Sea, The Saddest Landscape, IDNOCLIP, Squall, XcrimedogX, & Some Stranger.
Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist who has written for Rolling Stone, MOJO, FLOOD, the LA Times, Guitar World, Revolver, eMusic, the Jewish Daily Forward and dozens of other print and online outlets. Epstein has worked as a producer at VH-1, an editor at Revolver magazine and the now-defunct ShockHound.com, and is the author of Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of '76, Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s,Honky-Tonk Tourist: The Night Buck Owens Almost Got Me Killed, and 20th Century Pop Culture. He is also the co-author of The Captain & Me: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson with Ron Blomberg, and Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World's Greatest Guitarists and Vintage & Rarities: 333 Cool, Crazy and Hard to Find Guitar Pedals with Eilon Paz. An avid historian of music, baseball and pop culture, Epstein has been dubbed "The Bangs-ian Herodotus of 70s Baseball" by Cardboard Gods author Josh Wilker. Epstein lives in Greensboro, NC.