Rock solid decade built on feedback Revv Amplification plugs into social media to burnish reputation as ‘gem in the industry’ Made in Manitoba
By: Aaron Epp Posted: 6:17 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 Last Modified: 7:51 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 Updates

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Derek Eastveld was running an errand in 2016 when he let an unknown caller go to voicemail. If he had known it was a rock star contacting him, he would have picked up.

“Hey Derek, this is Neal Schon from Journey calling,” Eastveld recalls hearing when he later checked his messages. “Can you please give me a call?”

It was a surreal moment for a small-town boy born and raised in southern Manitoba (Carman, to be exact). When he was a child, Eastveld’s mother often played Journey’s Greatest Hits album in the house.

Schon, lead guitarist and co-founder of the long-running American band, was interested in partnering with Revv Amplification, the company Eastveld, 44, co-founded with Dan Trudeau, 47.

That’s how Schon ended up playing through a Revv amp during the final performance of the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony — a cover of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World that featured members of Journey, Rush and Pearl Jam.

“It kicked serious ass on (that) jam,” Schon wrote when he posted photos of his Revv Generator 120 on his Facebook page the next month.

More than seven years later, Eastveld grins ear to ear when he talks about it.

“That was the first really big artist — like, superstar artist — that we did anything with,” he says. “And I could not believe that he just phoned me.”

Among musicians around the world, the Revv name commands respect. The Manitoba company has produced 10 different amplifiers and eight different effects pedals, each of which have undergone multiple revisions over the years.

“Different amplifiers have different voices,” Eastveld explains. “What we’ve done is we’ve created a new voice. And essentially what we are doing is we’re trying to get guitar players to try it to see if that’s a voice that they like and that inspires them to create.”

The company sells about 1,500 amplifiers and more than 6,000 pedals every year, bringing in between $3 million and $4 million in annual revenue.

Trudeau designs the products at home. The majority of the manufacturing is done by members of the company’s 22-person staff at its 5,000-square-foot headquarters in Grande Pointe.

Musicians who use Revv products range from respected Winnipeg-based virtuoso Joey Landreth to Kiki Wong, touring guitarist for alt-rock giants the Smashing Pumpkins.

Ryan (Fluff) Bruce, a guitarist and recording engineer in Tacoma, Wash., who reviews guitar equipment on his “Riffs, Beards & Gear” YouTube channel, describes Revv as “a disruptor,” whose quality is on par with major manufacturers like Gibson and Fender.

“I know a lot of larger companies see them as — I wouldn’t say a threat — but as something to keep an eye on,” says Bruce, who has followed Revv since the company started. “They’re genuinely a gem in the industry. I think a lot of people feel that way.”

At the beginning though, Trudeau and Eastveld could barely sell one amplifier.

Trudeau was a millwright in 2012 when a back injury left him unable to work. The lifelong musician, who spent the early 2000s singing in local heavy metal band Tinnitus, decided to build his own amplifier.

Trudeau met Eastveld in late 2013 when he hired Eastveld’s screen printing company, HD Graphics, to add a logo to the faceplate on his prototype. Eastveld, a guitar player and gear enthusiast since the age of 14, asked Trudeau if he could try the amp.

After two minutes of playing, Eastveld was in love. He asked if Trudeau wanted a business partner to help bring the amp to market and the two struck a deal.

By January 2014, they were in business.

“What matters is, are you having fun doing what you’re doing? Because this is, for almost everybody, a hobby. So enjoy your hobby.”–Derek Eastveld

One year later, they headed to the NAMM Show, an annual trade show in Anaheim, Calif., organized by the National Association of Music Merchants. With hundreds of dealers among the show’s 100,000-plus visitors, the business partners were confident they would sell at least 100 units of their first product, the Generator 120.

In four days, they managed to sell one amp at a 50 per cent discount.

The silver lining was Eastveld and Trudeau had started forming relationships with guitarists who had YouTube channels. In April 2018, when the company was launching its first effects pedal, it co-ordinated a campaign that saw multiple YouTubers release videos reviewing the pedal at the same time.

Eastveld figured the company would sell about 50 pedals that year, but 10 hours after the videos started coming out, he already had 300 orders.

“That changed everything about our company,” Eastveld says, noting when the pedal took off, amplifier sales followed. “We went from three people on staff full-time and we quickly moved up to 10 and then to 20.”

Trudeau and Eastveld credit social media with helping them establish the Revv brand. In recent years, they’ve started producing their own YouTube videos and Instagram Reels in a multimedia studio on site. The content highlights Revv products and celebrates guitar culture more generally.

Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., the company hosts “Gear and Beer,” a one- to two-hour livestream on YouTube where employees and special guests hang out in the studio and talk about guitars from all sorts of brands.

“Essentially, what we’re trying to do is build a community,” Eastveld says. “That way, when we’re trying to launch products or do anything, we’re able to directly access that community.”

It’s Eastveld’s hope guitar players of all abilities see themselves reflected in the social media content Revv produces.

“It doesn’t matter what your skill level is,” he says. “What matters is, are you having fun doing what you’re doing? Because this is, for almost everybody, a hobby. So enjoy your hobby.”

Bruce from “Riffs, Beards & Gear” calls Revv’s products versatile and describes Trudeau and Eastveld as open-minded, generous and “the least egotistical guys you could meet” — something that makes them stand out in the industry.

“All you have to do is look at the Generator series,” he says. “They keep updating it and improving it with user feedback. Just the fact that they’re willing to listen to their user base — no one does that.”

Trudeau and Eastveld say they don’t usually take time to celebrate their accomplishments, but Revv’s 10th anniversary this year has given them reason to reflect on their wins.

“This is something that we really like to do, and on so many different levels for me — whether it’s design, the music, the interactions, the relationships — it’s all a win,” Trudeau says. “And so we celebrate with the fact that we get to continue to do this.”

The new year will see Revv release three new amplifiers, as well as a line of pedals the company is creating in partnership with a famous guitarist they declined to name at this time. Thus, 2025 could be the company’s biggest year yet.

“We’re always just trying to provide better products that better suit the player,” Eastveld says.

“We’ve only scratched the surface,” Trudeau adds. “Ten years is great, but let’s keep going.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca