Rivet Pickups: A New Guitar Pickup and a Kickstarter Campaign

Technology in music is always evolving, from instruments to production to the way we listen to and consume our tunes. Innovation can be a great thing. Luthier and guitar component-designer David Petschulat created Rivet Pickups, the world’s first to expand guitar tone with mini-coils. These pickups hear only half the guitar’s strings and boost only those when turned on.

Just released are the RIVET ’63 and the RIVET ’64. The RIVET ’63 is a neck pickup that puts a mini-coil under the three bass strings and enhances the guitar’s bass tones. The RIVET ’64, on the other hand, is a bridge pickup that places a mini-coil under the treble strings, adding presence to the guitar’s higher register. The volume of these mini-coils always blends with other coils and pickups.

Creator David Petschulat has made guitars and components for many well-known artists including Eddie Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and Heart. Rivet pickups are made by himself and his son Sam at their workshop just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Musicians that already use Rivet pickups include Isaac Brock and Jim Fairchild of Modest Mouse, Art Alexakis of Everclear, and Mick Jones of Foreigner, among others.

Recently Rivet pickups started a Kickstarter campaign and within a day had reached over 50% funding and Kickstarter named them a “Project We Love”.

Here is what the RIVET ’63 and RIVET ’64 sound like: