Organically expand your guitar tone with Rivet Pickups' mini-coils

If you want to give your guitar's tone a boost, you need a pedal, switchable amp or 9V-powered active circuit, right? Think again, as Rivet Pickups presents a "revolutionary" approach to tone-fattening.

This new kind of humbucker-sized pickup boasts what Rivet call mini-coils - an additional set of coils that boosts either your treble or bass strings when switched on, no batteries required.

Two flavours are available, both using Alnico II magnets: the Rivet '63 neck pickup features a mini-coil beneath the bass strings for extra bottom-end oomph, while the Rivet '64 bridge pickup packs the mini-coil underneath the treble strings for extra top-end presence.

The mini-coils are tilted so the volume blends with other coils and pickups, and Rivet hope to provider connector boards to make wiring and balancing Rivets simple and solder-free.

Rivet Pickups come from the mind of luthier David Petschulat, who has worked with the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Heart and Foreigner.

We love the thinking behind the Rivet concept, and Petschulat is hoping others will, too, as the pickups are currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign - full retail value of the Rivet '63 or '64 is $220, but pledge discounts are available at the time of writing.

Michael Astley-Brown

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.