TVvoodoo's Straplab

[TVvoodoo]

@fitz You wouldn't be the first to tell me "I bought a strap now I'm shopping for a guitar for it LOL!"

Today new in the shop is "HellFire" based on the underwhelming non-success of a recent similar strap called "Bayou."
I decided to double down on my fail LOL! I love this design, and wanted to see if maybe if the red one is gonna be the play?
The green pair has a lot of watchers but no trigger action as of yet.

This is hand-bursted-by-me dark red croc embossed cowhide on black moto leather. Clearcoated the croc, added four 20mm conchos with black cabochons and some small nickel rivets.
Looks like a dark cherry fire is burning deep within. Great for one of those heritage Cherry SGs or whatever I figure.
I only had time to do one of these, as I have other stuff going on in the shop besides.

Anyway, it's all up in the Reverb store with plenty more pics, too.
Hope your Tuesday ain't no bluesday, 'less you wanted it that way

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Hmmmmmm….

Would that pair well with this?

 

[TVvoodoo]

I think it very well might TBD, if that's direct sun... the strap is a bit more black cherry/dark

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Yes…it was facing into a sunset.

 

[Don O]

My problem is all my good guitars are already Well-Hung™, so when I see a new strap I like, I start thinking about buying a guitar to pair with the strap...

I’ve done that twice now. I bought a nice red strap a few years ago and then realized I didn’t have a red guitar. I bought a red SG to accessorize the strap. Then Brad made me the #2 Starry Night strap and I built a Warmoth guitar for the strap.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today I completed something I haven't had in the store for a while - a Rebellion Métis Sash strap! Recently made a bunch for an outfit in Winnipeg, but figured My store could use one too.
This one is a bit different as I went with a "Moose-Hidey" suede on the nose and tail... just looks like traditionally done moosehide, but it's actually cowhide.

There's a ton of history behind this sash, and each colour has particular cultural significance, all that is listed
in the Reverb listing. This is 3" wide, nicely padded and goes 44-57' long. I really like the trad moosehide look on this.

Lastly, I'm gonna toot my horn a bit, ok well allow somebody else to do it. If you aren't using Pro-pins, (my own design strap buttons)
and are feeling a little doubt about the security of your rig... Get you some right away! This feedback came in yesterday.

Way way WAY more elegant than clunky, noisy straplock gadgets, no extra parts, grub screws, ball bearings, lube... all that maintenance stuff.
Also they won't suddenly pop off or jack your screw loose like beer washers can. Plenty of room for even the thickest thick strap ends,
and they work great with every brand of strap I've tried them with. Plus no wibble-wobbly screw... very tight shaft for the longer screw.
These are all good things you need in your life. Give them a try. I have them in gold, black and nickel.

 

[GrooVey]

View attachment 106242

It’s mine

Hmmmmmm….
View attachment 106245
Would that pair well with this?

That’s a match!!!

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Yep

 

[TVvoodoo]

New in the Well-Hung Reverb store are some Axe Warriors. Two in black, one in brown.

Probably my best "invention" of 2023, this strap has unique operational capabilities. It was inspired by the CAF C6 machine gun sling,
and utilizes Australian Defense Force surplus cordura as the main material, as well as good leather, and strong thread.

It has two sets of brassy double D-rings on each side of wide, ultra-padded floating pad. What's unique is that the pad is built to grip, while the skinny strap is built to slip.
With a little practice you can get eight or nine inches of easy-no-think strap/guitar movement, while the grippy, pillowy pad stays in place.

It's something rather different, adjusts very easily between 42-approx. 60" - back when I first offered these, I made a little demo vid.

Don seems pleased with his FlipSide Poker chips!

Plenty more different ones in the store! If you message me here NOT ON REVERB,
I can send them a lot cheaper in a plain envelope, or add one into a strap deal pretty easy.

Happy Saturday my bros!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today I completed a custom for Al who is a brother I met on social media elsewhere...

Al is in the process of building a barnwoodish- black limba Vee for his friend as a surprise and asked me for a strap to match that that would offer sort of an aged/relic'd vibe but also a little metal badass - besides - He mentioned any possible antiqued brass, skulls, and maybe some sort of nod to bats would be ideal. Bats? I guess his buddy is REALLY into bats for some reason.
And, it had to go as long as 62 inches, as he's a big big fella.

Anyway, I've had this gunmetal/brass pyramid studded belt standing by waiting for years to be made into something, so I put together a No Prisoners style custom based on some old crackle leather I had safely stored in my "Leather Library" that I think is entirely suitable for this.

Skull - CHECK! Brass - CHECK! Badass pirate/biker grommets and leather lacing... CHECK! CHECK! and CHECK! I even worked in some bat-shaped elements in the nose and tail ladder. A bit sad that my my sewing machine dented up some of the pyramid studs... but that's also the relic factor... it does appear to have lots of miles on it with that crackle/worn distressed leather look.

This one will be headed to where it needs to go tomorrow. Todd out in Ontario got his custom. We good.

Happy Tuesday!

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Pretty good match for that barn board V.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today I'm experimenting in the ComfortFlex realm... I got more booty band in... this time I got some of the stuff that is "Mid Strength" instead of the heavy. I would say this stuff would be far better with anything that is less than 8 lbs or it gets into bowowow, boingy-woingy territory pretty fast. And, the black leopard pattern changes colour when it's under that eight or nine pounds stress... first colour changing strap ever? I dunno!

This stuff is 3" wide, thick, THICK elastic made for resistance training in fitness centres and such. It also has two band of latex woven into the underside making these thing magnificently non-slip too. But you can do all you fave moves and such, like machine-gunning, or whatever, and when your done, the strap automatically goes right to home position, so you don't need a slippy strap to reposition, and then deal with all the issues slippy straps come with.

Again, I'm prototyping... a set of three of these in the light weight with black leather will be completed tomorrow.
I also got some of this same stuff in "heavy" weight too, that will probably be Friday's job.

Remember this one?

I made two of these, also ComfortFlex. I put one in my Reverb store (still there), and the other I handed off to my dude "Pepper" who runs the local music shop, plays in local bands etc.. - I told him to to test for a couple nights, then put it up for sale in his music store, tell me what he thought.

Messaged him last night, after looking for him at the store on Saturday, missed him unfortunately. I noticed he hadn't returned it into the store inventory. His message back to me: "THIS ONE IS NEVER LEAVING MY HOME!"

Believe me brothers! They are that good! I'm going to be working on a lot of these over the next week or two, outside of any custom work that comes in.

One last thing for today. Stitching at stress points. I try to do this semi-religiously, so much that it is now becoming second nature, even if it does slow my production down. It's called the "backstitch" or some call it reinforced straight stitch, or the "bar tack" stitch. Basically it's using the same holes but going back and then ahead again for three, four or even more stitches, effectively tripling up the thread for short sections of the piece being stitched.

I do this at key points in most of my work. And with the very strong thread I use, it makes a Well-Hung strap extra heavy duty. I don't really see too many others paying much attention to this kind of detail, but I feel it's important.

OH, and don't forget to check out the cool Poker chips in the Well-Hung Reverb Store

Happy Hump day, hope you will!

 

[GrooVey]

Skull - CHECK! Brass - CHECK! Badass pirate/biker grommets and leather lacing... CHECK! CHECK! and CHECK! I even worked in some bat-shaped elements in the nose and tail ladder. A bit sad that my my sewing machine dented up some of the pyramid studs... but that's also the relic factor... it does appear to have lots of miles on it with that crackle/worn distressed leather look.

This one will be headed to where it needs to go tomorrow. Todd out in Ontario got his custom. We good.

Happy Tuesday!

Nailed IT!!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

It's not very often a breakthrough happens in the guitar strap world, but I think I'm onto one with this ComfortFlex design.
I completed six of these today, three in Middleweight, (for instruments 6-8.5 lbs) and three in Heavyweight (8.5- 12+ lbs).

They all look the same, only difference is there are two strengths of athletic resistance band, medium and heavy. Both sets in this black leopard pattern at 3" wide. Very strong too!

Different from other versions of this strap is that I left the interior of the band as-is - that is, it's got two 1/2" strips of latex woven
right into the underside. Pretty cool, right?

Effectively, this adds a rather extreme amount of grip. Enough that you can ride your strap gunslinger style, on the wrong shoulder with quite a lot of confidence and security. Not kidding!

But what is really great about this strap when worn normal style, it returns back to home position very reliably, after you do any showboat, hot-doggin' moves. The elasticity is not too much, boinging all over the place, but it still allows you all kinds of freedom to move. And when you're done? BOOM! ComfortFlex just goes back home to where you had it in the first place, no thinking, slipping, shifting or whatever. It's a rather unique guitar playing experience that I hope some One Roomies are willing to try. Even just normal play action, the shock absorbing effect is very noticeable, and negates all the hammering on you those poly straps love to do.

We all come here to these forums often to be influenced by gear choices others make ... This is your opportunity to be an early adopter on something quite fresh, and I hope you after you put one to work, you will quickly see fit to influence others with your wise choice!

One last thought on this. A couple months ago on a "favourite strap" thread, not sure if it was here or elsewhere, I saw a lot of posts noting they liked a particular strap because it was compact and folded up nice to fit in a case. To me that's the absolute WORST reason to choose a strap, but I'm only one dude here. I man if you're willing to suffer for hours during AND after your gigs, rehearsals or play sessions, for this one small convenience, that's totally your own business. Well-Hung warriors understand that generally, my straps are too padded, and a little too robust to fit inside most gear pockets. They have a little body to them (but they'll never get all twisty-uppy either). However.....

This one? It'll fit in your case, and offers amazing player comfort and guitar security. Plus, the shock absorber effect, AND the return-to-home feature ta boot.
That's why I feel it's a game-changer.

I have some of this ribbon in regular leopard too, and the more ComfortFlex design with hootenanny style ribbons in a few different colours and patterns are on the way as well. I'll show them probably next week.

 

[TVvoodoo]

We suffered a loss in our family this week.

Wednesday night, I was watching a little playoff hockey, and got the bad news. A faithful friend,
my favorite a long time, probably near 20 years now, just plain gave up the ghost.

Perhaps I was getting a little exuberant with the game and all, well, the back on my old rocker/recliner just let go with a CRRRRAAAACKK!
Near dumped me right out the backside! Quite a surprise. Didn't spill nothing though.

Yesterday I took some time to have a look to see if it was reparable, and well, sadly I thought not.
So, I stripped that sucker right down to the bones. Wasn't 100% leather, just the human touch points, the back, the seat,
legrest, the arms - the rest a very closely matched vinyl.

Salvaged what I could, this leather in spots with a very desirable patina, enough to make a few straps, and then some. I'll Probably use the rest as reinforcement, or backing. I get a lot of asks for worn, or "relic'd" leather. Never had much success with faking it. The honest way seems best, just like with guitars. Very nice milk chocolate brown, now with fades, creases, stains and crackles.

20 years of beer and gas passin' and popcorn grease and all that... I did take care of it, I conditioned it a couple of times over the years...
It didnt' look terrible outside, but inside? It's time was up. Maybe that's the best way for all of us to go LOL!

Anyway, this chair.... MY chair, No... my THRONE whereupon from which I have ruled my castle, has served me so very well.
Together we enjoyed many a game, movies, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Ozarks, and family gatherings like Christmas...
quite a lot of chair guitar too.... all that. Very sad to see it go. I'm sure many of you appreciate and understand.

Here's what broke. Solid steel. Probably just too many times flopping in, the way I did. It was very ploofy, overstuffed,
inviting an entrance of that sort. A friend to the very end, even in it's dying gasp it sent me a helpful message: You gettin' FAT Bro!

From the leather, today I made two straps... My old chair leather was deserving of my premium Class Act format.
Lightly padded, with high quality western buckle hardware. Go 44-58" with a heavy upholstery fabric backing.

Beautiful straps, with a heavy seam utilized down the front. If you like "patina" you'll really dig this one. Not in the store quite yet,
will be over the weekend, with more pics.

Happy Friday my brothers, appreciate your chairs! They don't last forever!

 

[Thatbastarddon]

We suffered a loss in our family this week.

Wednesday night, I was watching a little playoff hockey, and got the bad news. A faithful friend,
my favorite a long time, probably near 20 years now, just plain gave up the ghost.

Perhaps I was getting a little exuberant with the game and all, well, the back on my old rocker/recliner just let go with a CRRRRAAAACKK!
Near dumped me right out the backside! Quite a surprise. Didn't spill nothing though.

Yesterday I took some time to have a look to see if it was reparable, and well, sadly I thought not.
So, I stripped that sucker right down to the bones. Wasn't 100% leather, just the human touch points, the back, the seat,
legrest, the arms - the rest a very closely matched vinyl.

Salvaged what I could, this leather in spots with a very desirable patina, enough to make a few straps, and then some. I'll Probably use the rest as reinforcement, or backing. I get a lot of asks for worn, or "relic'd" leather. Never had much success with faking it. The honest way seems best, just like with guitars. Very nice milk chocolate brown, now with fades, creases, stains and crackles.

20 years of beer and gas passin' and popcorn grease and all that... I did take care of it, I conditioned it a couple of times over the years...
It didnt' look terrible outside, but inside? It's time was up. Maybe that's the best way for all of us to go LOL!

Anyway, this chair.... MY chair, No... my THRONE whereupon from which I have ruled my castle, has served me so very well.
Together we enjoyed many a game, movies, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Ozarks, and family gatherings like Christmas...
quite a lot of chair guitar too.... all that. Very sad to see it go. I'm sure many of you appreciate and understand.

Here's what broke. Solid steel. Probably just too many times flopping in, the way I did. It was very ploofy, overstuffed,
inviting an entrance of that sort. A friend to the very end, even in it's dying gasp it sent me a helpful message: You gettin' FAT Bro!

From the leather, today I made two straps... My old chair leather was deserving of my premium Class Act format.
Lightly padded, with high quality western buckle hardware. Go 44-58" with a heavy upholstery fabric backing.

Beautiful straps, with a heavy seam utilized down the front. If you like "patina" you'll really dig this one. Not in the store quite yet,
will be over the weekend, with more pics.

Happy Friday my brothers, appreciate your chairs! They don't last forever!

Sorry for your loss Brad…good to see it live on.

 

[TVvoodoo]

I'm hoping for a replacement chair for father's day/my birthday kind of worked in together. Laying the hints pretty heavy

 

[TVvoodoo]

Funny story: I was perusing the local buy and sell site early this morning, found a dude wanting to unload a free dual reclining leather sofa and matching rocker recliner for FREE!

The sofa was in 3 pieces and missing some parts, plus some of the vinyl bits were separating and cracked so it kinda looked like Hell. But the rocker recliner chair is in fine shape. His stipulation was I has to take both items as he just wanted rid of it all. No problem!

Heaved it all in the truck, and a couple hours later I had it home and stripped off all the sofa leather, (quite a bit of very useable stuff actually), and got me a pretty fine new chair ta boot! Pretty close match to my original sofa, if just a bit darker.

The stars aligned for me today!

 

[fitz]

matching rocker recliner for FREE!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Today continuing on in with the continued improvements on my invention in the "ComfortFlex" vein ... that is powerfully strong athletic resistance training banding,
at 3" wide. I'm adding a little vintage style with hootenanny ribbon which also has elastic properties. So, the whole dang body flexes, probably better'n yours!
Better than mine for sure! (and it's not out of control flex, it's just kind of perfect, really).

I think this tried and true 2" wide age old hootenanny ribbon style works very well on the 3" wide black base.
On this set of three, I just have to make some tail straps first thing tomorrow, and I'll take photos and put a listing up on reverb.
I'm going to name this configuration "TV Yellow" because as I see it, pretty much ideal for that sort of vibe.

On this set, just like the Black Leopard version made last week, I am leaving the woven latex dual strip interior which offers quite an amazing amount of grip to this strap.
While the elasticity of this banding is nowhere near enough to allow even the heaviest neck dive, the grip factor also works to keep this strap in place. However, there will be an option to have me pad this strap and add a stretch lining if you want. The strap still retains approx 2/3 of it's stretch properties that way, but padding and lining does dampen some of it. I'm still trying to figure out which one I like better. The un-padded one seems so easy and simple, stows easier too, maybe a little "sporty." And it's still plenty comfy with that 3" wide footprint, but the padded version is more like an optioned-out Cadillac, vs a Cutlass Supreme, if you get my drift.

The amazing freedom of movement will this "heavy" banding is perfect for any instrument between approx 8-12 pounds, anything lighter, the shock absorbing effect is still there, but minimal. In that case it will only flex when YOU choose it too, making stage moves and such... but otherwise will wear mostly like a wonderfully-unique 3" wide strap.

I hope a few of you decide to try one and be as amazed as I continue to be wearing this sling. I hate to say it, but it kind of seems to make everything else immediately obsolete, comically uncomfortable and plain outdated. Oh, I'll still be making all kinds of other straps, because variety is the spice of life, amirite?