TVvoodoo's Straplab

Well my brothers, it looks like my business is soon about to be pistol-whipped by the Canadian Union of Postal employees (CUPE) once again. I can think of several other unkind words for the acronym, but I'm trying my best to compress and stow my rage deep inside, like all good men tend to do.

I expect it to not last as long as last time, they were out for a solid month, but yeah, it really stung because it was right in the heart of the retail gift season.

I'm going to try NOT closing my store this time, and use alternate shipping via Purolater. Costs twice as much to ship most items this way and is a rather huge pain on my end. Therefore, I will NOT be accepting offers via Reverb but WILL absorb any additional shipping costs, for the time being.

I will also continue to build daily, and build inventory and try to keep smiling! I'll be attending guitar shows in the fall, so can't have too much stock. One of the things that saved my bacon last time was several repeat customers kept me busy with custom work, and were not in a hot hurry to receive the goods, which shipped the very first day our postal channels re-opened. I'm praying this might happen again. So if you are considering custom work, at a bit of a discount, and are willing to wait for an indefinite period of time, I'm your huckleberry!

OK what's new in the store? "ComfortFlex TV Yellow" is

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Before you get all upset and correct me this guitar is not at all TV Yellow, Yeah, I know. Closest I have! It'll look good on that, most vintage sunbursts. Even has a bit of mint green in it. Anyway, this is a very fine strap, so many advantages over others and actual features. More than just a little revolutionary I think, and I'm pretty focused on that world.

I will be building each below ribbon colour schemes in coming weeks but will also accept custom orders if you don't want to wait for when I get to it.

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ComfortFlex takes almost all of the work out of "strap management" during play, and is amazingly comfortable, strong, and I think looks pretty fine too. Your body will thank you. Read more about it in the listing on Reverb.

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Also new in the store, a pair of "Sofa King Oxblood" guitar straps. The leather colour is one of those that seems to shift in different light...
here on my bench... more a maroon/black cherry

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And my photo dummy, in warmer light, it leans slightly more brown. Note the rather expensive and fancy western buckle set, and my Class Act format
Pretty much my top-of-the-line strap build.

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Interesting story on how I got this leather over the weekend, but that transaction also included a replacement for my busted old Rocker/Recliner detailed a few posts back in this thread... Just in time for tonight's game! I detail all that fun in the Reverb listing, now up.
 
Well, turns out that game wasn't worth much to watch anyway. I caught the end which added insult to injury!
But, game two might be fun, as it seems game one got some spirits little heated! Olde tyme hockey!

New off the bench but just didn't make the store, (will tomorrow), a strap I haven't made for a long time! Back around 2015-2016 when I was finding my strapmaking legs, my "Matrika" series was a mainstay, utilizing this fancy 3" wide embroidered ribbon I had some folks in Pakistan to make for me in various colour schemes. Back then, I was able to source it for about a buck a foot, now it's like two or three.

Anyway, pretty much all I have left from the initial 100 yards purchased, is this silver/black/ and very light creme version, which never seemed to be a strong seller for whatever reason. But I'm using it up anyway! No sense sitting on it.

It's a floral thing, quite striking on battleship gray, bone white flowers (not harsh white, and I think they are supposed to be Magnolias), with metallic silver incorporated throughout for a little flash. This ribbon is 3" wide, but has sharp edges, so I build it out a bit on the sides with velvety black fabric so it won't cut into your neck. After that, effectively these straps are about 3.25" or a bit better wide. The black velvet is also the inner lining. Good heavy black leather nose and tail sections, and they adjust about 43-58" via a ladderback style.

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I added something else to this run of four that I haven't done since about that time, when I was really trying to establish myself as a specialist in guitar strap comfort.
I'm not revealing it here, you might even be able to see what I've done. If you can't figure it, message me I'll tell you what it is. I only made a couple runs of this special "Petite Secret" version, but I have a couple old Well-Hung warrior clan-members who continue to mention they'd like to see a return. So let's just keep this extra feature under our hats. Fact is, certain little innovations I come up with often seem to appear in offerings by Big Strap a few months after I reveal, so I'm keeping it in stealth mode on this one.

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It's really padded, wider and probably sexier than you deserve, lots of heavy black leather and that extra feature I can't openly talk about
- GREAT strap for like a silverburst or whatever. I'll have them up in the store tomorrow sometime.

While you're at it, why not pick up a set of "Flipside" Switch rings? All kinds of them waiting for adoption in my reverb store right now!
I made "SHAME/REGRET" specifically for a TTR member, can you guess who it is? LOL!

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Nice words from Forum Brother @GrooVey - he probably owns five or six now, and seems to have a black belt
in effective Reverb Feedback! I think he's back at sea now... by my wishes to you for safe travels.

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Happy Thursday!
 
Got after more of the "ComfortFlex" straps waiting to be built today.
Seriously, not too often a gamechanger happens! You really gotta try one, or you're missin' out. I say this in all seriousness and with love for all my guitary brothers out there.

"Purple Mystery"

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And... "Concrete"

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3" wide, built with heavy athletic resistance band AND elastic hootenanny ribbon. It will float guitars between 8-12 pounds right in your sweet spot. Built-in latex grip woven into the underside of the strap and plenty of good black leather where you want and need it. Facilitates the freedom and confidence to pull really cool shapes, rolls small, and I predict will become very important to you.

I invented this set up. Removes that on-stage "strap management" nonsense from the equation. This means you get to concentrate on making music and impressing the girlies! Priorities!

People are going to beg you to reveal where you found it! More to come, next week.
 
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Do you want to be noticed? To be seen? Perhaps you crave creating a bit of a buzz about your stage presence. Or maybe you have a big important video shoot coming up.

very possibly your next secret weapon could be... "Showstoppah!"

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This is thousands upon thousands of glass beads intricately hand laid (I didn't do it, it's a found item) on a 3.25" wide black leather padded plaftorm. The leather wraps around the underside,
but I built in in my Premium Class Act form factor, with a strong gold finished back buckle and it adjusts between 45"-61"

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The glittery beads are in black, olive green, gold crystal blue/white and red. Now I've had many people call me an "artist" after surveying my work, but I never really felt could live up to that until I was able to complete this one today. It's something!

It was one of the tougher straps I've ever made, I had to do a number of things differently, to keep from destroying the real artwork here, the beading. So that took most of the day today.

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Definitely a cool one, maybe my finest, most beautiful strap ever. In sunlight? Totally bonkers!
It'll be going up on reverb tomorrow likely.
 
@Jethro Rocker PVR? what is this, time travel? Sounds like witchcraft to me. Game night tonight!

New in the store today, along with the beaded one above, is a pair of my revolutionary, I say ground-breaking
game-changer guitar suspension invention I have dubbed the Comfort-flex.

You know boys, when I'm lying cold and dead in my coffin, guitarists everywhere will lament, "That's the dude who
invented the C-Flex sling. Gave us more guitar innovation than EVH and Hendrix combined." To that the reply might go"
"Bro, what even is a guitar, man?"

but ... Just you wait!

This is the colour scheme I call "Sonic Blue"

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Got a bit of powder blue, some hot orange, a bit of yellow, off-white and a bit of gray in the center. It's nice!

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Again, another look at the interior lining of the Comfort-Flex strap. Mostly black elastic fabric but....

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A dual track of latex woven into the inside effectively kills neck dive and allows this strap to remain in home position at all times. EVEN when you're stretching the rest of the body of the strap out of shape to form all your ego-enhancing, girlie-attractin' stage shapes. Amazing! I've been foolin' with wearing a guitar on the wrong shoulder, gunslinger style. It's dumb and silly, but real easy to do confidently with this strap!

It's Well-Hung StrapLab invention, remember you saw it here first!

Yeah, thanks to @WavMixer and his evil forum AI automation, you already know my birthday today.
Fifty-nine. Ugh.

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Hope your Tuesday is working for you so far! Went and spanked a big bucket of balls at the range last night\
to knock the rust off, OMG did I hurt getting out of bed this morning. Wrists are so sore!
 
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I reckon seven extra shells, (other than what's already onboard in yer mag tube) would be enough to get outta MOST surprise situations.
If you needed more than that, your chances of survival were probably limited anyway.

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Yes, these are things I think on while I'm making these guitar straps. :unsure:

"End Times #6" near completion... watch for it in the Reverb store tomorrow, I think! It's close to completion
 
Fresh off the bench and in the Reverb store today,

"Dark Shadows - BLAZE" - python embossed cowhide I got a bit burst-nutty on with the leather dye - that's a dangerous lookin snek, I'll tell you what!

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And continuing my work with the Booty Band, like the gray leopard, I had some made in regular leopard too... in both medium weight (made three today), and heavy-weight (making tomorrow). Medium will float guitars nice up to 8 ish lbs. after that you may find it gets a tad circus-clowny

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Again this stuff has the dual latex track inside that helps it stay put and return to position after you make all your moves. Really takes "strap management" out of the picture. Like it's on autopilot.
That, and the fact it absorbs shocks large and small, is THREE inches wide, and pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself.

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I say every guitarist needs an animal print strap in the stable, make yours one of higher form, possibly the best, most player friendly and stage-ready guitar straps ever conceived: Comfort-Flex!
 
New in the store, to compliment the Lite version of the Leopard Comfort-Flex, is the same thing, but in HEAVY weight.
Tensioned far better for 8.5 lb. guitars and over.

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3" wide, shock-absorbing, ergonomic user-friendly strap! 44"-57". I invented it, and I'm telling you again, it's the
GREATEST THING SINCE THE FLOYD ROSE TREM SYSTEM - Heck, even BETTER! God I hate those things LOL!
It'll change how you play, get you outta the chair, make gigs shorter, put a HUGE smile on your mug!
Mostly because of the wide athletic resistance band, and the latex grip tracks that line the interior.

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Keeps this strap in place exactly where you want it. However, because it flexes, you'll make all the guitarman moves you like, but the strap stays pretty much stationary. No more worries about your treasured G&R T-shirt pullin' up revealing all your nasty back hair, or you flailing around working to get your strap back to home position after that perfectly-timed machine-gunnin' the audience move. It. Just. Works. Super liberating!

OK, more traditional... Also in the shop today, I completed another "SwaggerMan" - this is a belt conversion strap, I think this is number 8.
I kept the first two back for myself, enough for me, but as I can find these I share them out. Fantastic strap, that looks right out of 1974.

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Again 3" wide, 44"-57" lots of black leather, macho texture. Absolute rock god strap, with a back buckle system.
No padding, but also has a little bit of spring to it. STURDY, big stage ready.

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TGIF - I got a LOT of grass to mow, but boy she's real smoky up in these parts. A LOT of big fires up here right now.
 
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