 From 1699 he lived and worked in Donauwörth, where he also built lutes and violas.Around 1720 Hochbrucker invented the pedal mechanism to play the harp, adding to the instrument five (later increased to seven) pedals and connecting them to the hooks for the C, D, F, G, and B strings, thus allowing the player to alter the strings sound of a semitone and greatly extend the range of the instrument for the extraction of sounds.This ingenious chromatic system later became the subject matter of studies and extended considerations.