TVvoodoo's Straplab

some final extras the by customer request on dragonfly before I move it on down the road...

Onboard pick caddy
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Kinda handy, but I don't really like building extra stuff into straps much.
Back end cable keeper, so it don't rub none against precious...

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Just gonna give 'er one more coat of boot grease, take a couple of glamour shots for the dude before sending off
 
I know you fellas are probably getting tired of this one by now, so these are the last pics before I move on to the Grateful Dead project

Project: Anisoptera - the Dragonfly Guitar Strap

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9/10 oz vegtan leather, carved, tooled, and dyed by hand, padded, lined 56" fixed length. One of my best to date, I think.
Credit does go to Johnny Z for the dragonfly idea, and the vintage goldtop pics that inspired this and will be mated with.

Dumb thing, but I really can't wait to see how the water ripples match up with the checking on the backside of that paul, and
the colour of the knocked-back gold matches with the top. I believe it's going to be near perfection.
 
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Always top notch work. Maybe one day I'll come up with an idea worthy enough to commission your talent for. Until then I will continue to enjoy these posts.
I know you fellas are probably getting tired of this one by now, so these are the last pics before I move on to the Grateful Dead project

Project: Anisoptera - the Dragonfly Guitar Strap

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9/10 oz vegtan leather, carved, tooled, and dyed by hand, padded, lined 56" fixed length. One of my best to date, I think.
Credit does go to Johnny Z for the dragonfly idea, and the vintage goldtop pics that inspired this and will be mated with.

Dumb thing, but I really can't wait to see how the water ripples match up with the checking on the backside of that paul, and
the colour of the knocked-back gold matches with the top. I believe it's going to be near perfection.
Pretty sure no one here gets tired of seeing your work.
 
Pretty sure no one here gets tired of seeing your work.

Awwww so nice of you to say @iblive . I'm hoping to entertain and engage but also admittedly an ulterior motive to cause strap GAS for anyone interested.
I know I won't convince everyone, but if I can get some of of you to trade away your $9 ernie ball starter pack slings and thirty dollar fake leather Wank the Willys pooped out of a Chinese factory, and replace 'em with proper grownup guitar player kind of straps, my mission on this earth will be complete

happy Sunday my TTR brothers, sisters and those somewhere in-between
 
Some finished pics of the Steal Your Face strap. Finished.... except I still have to punch a couple strap pin holes,
and he is a dedicated Well-Hung Pro-Pins (my own design oversize strap button) convert.

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Thin edge burst done by hand without airbrush was one of the more difficult things I have done, but learned a lot!

This is for one of my forum brothers and a return customer on the Agile Guitar Forum, and as I understand it
he has indeed showered at least once in the past ten days. :ROFLMAO:
 
Well-Hung Pro-Pins (my own design oversize strap button)

I'm so glad I noticed this part. I absolutely hate the new design Schallers I have on but haven't found an alternative that seems like it'll be brtter, until now. Guess I know what my first gear purchase next month will be...
 
I'm so glad I noticed this part. I absolutely hate the new design Schallers I have on but haven't found an alternative that seems like it'll be brtter, until now. Guess I know what my first gear purchase next month will be...

Interested in why you dislike the new S-design... gee, on most guitar forums many fellas claim they are the GREATEST invention known to guitar man LOL! Never seen a set in person,
already know I don't like 'em. Hated the first version too, then they make them even more complicated than the original, over-engineer solutions to simple problems, which I feel are most often weak thin strap ends, and hotdog-in-a-hallway button shafts sporting short thin girly screws with hardly no bite.

Yes, @aon the Well-Hung Pro-pins oversize jumbo strap butts solve a lot of problems, and won't create any new ones like those other gadgets often do
Simple & effective, and they look great too! I really should promote them more.

When folks get them and see how stupidly robust and (my opinion) beautiful they are it's kind of a revelation. They'll bring a refreshing change in a fellas gear life, with renewed peace of mind and stability, and I haven't seen a strap yet that didn't work with them from other brands, at least those that are made to go on strap buttons.

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I've installed them on most of my guitars, though Pro-pins are not suitable for acoustics. I also have a couple of instruments with the Old School Leather Straplocks for demo purposes, and I keep one guitar as stock with little space capsules here, also for demonstration purposes.

I believe I am the only guy making these, they were common to see in stores in the late 70's early 80's.
I sell probably five dozen sets of these a year, to the vintage mindset fellas. Ok, guitar codgers. ;)
I think mine are a bit improved, but can't compare because I lost the original set I once had many years ago when I traded them away in '89 or so attached to a Hondo LP that was possessed by mischievously evil intonation demons.

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Interested in why you dislike the new S-design... gee, on most guitar forums many fellas claim they are the GREATEST invention known to guitar man LOL! Never seen a set in person,
already know I don't like 'em. Hated the first version too, then they make them even more complicated than the original, over-engineer solutions to simple problems, which I feel are most often weak thin strap ends, and hotdog-in-a-hallway button shafts sporting short thin girly screws with hardly no bite.

As with any German invention, I'm probably just stupid and using them wrong...

I never had any problems with the "traditional" Schaller locks that I got over 20 years ago, when my cheap strat copy started falling off it's strap a bit too often. Still have the locks and the strap somewhere...

Can't get to grips with these new ones though. It's like the tolerance between the strap button and the lock is too tight so the lock gets jammed on the button often and won't rotate freely. This will cause both the lock part to rotate on the strap, no matter how much I tighten it (of course it's harder to tighten than the previous model as there is no hex nut anymore), and also because the strap button is now one integrated part with the screw, and thus there's no way the button can rotate on the screw, so it will also work its way out of the wood (glue seems to help, and it's worse on basswood than mahogany...)

So I have to check them once in a while to verify that the lock isn't upside down on the strap and the button is still screwed into the wood... And it sucks having to fight the strap to get guitars into the stand as often the strap just won't rotate.
 
Don't mean to hijack your thread but just to show I'm not exaggerating... I had a few hours during my son's nap (he's got an ear infection so I'm taking care of him at home) to change the strings and do a bit of other maintenance on the guitars. I took some photos of the S-Locks while at it:

On the Strat both were upside down:

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On the Tele Radio some rotation in both. This is by far the stiffest strap and also the guitar I play the least out of the three:

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On the Les Paul a roughly 45-degree rotation in the front one. The back one is OK!

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It's been ~ 8 - 9 hours since I straightened them all. They are not straight anymore.

As a bonus, this "classic" set has been on this strap since 2002. This is how much they have gone out of alignment in almost 20 years:

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Don't mean to hijack your thread but just to show I'm not exaggerating... I had a few hours during my son's nap (he's got an ear infection so I'm taking care of him at home) to change the strings and do a bit of other maintenance on the guitars. I took some photos of the S-Locks while at it:

On the Strat both were upside down:

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On the Tele Radio some rotation in both. This is by far the stiffest strap and also the guitar I play the least out of the three:

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On the Les Paul a roughly 45-degree rotation in the front one. The back one is OK!

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It's been ~ 8 - 9 hours since I straightened them all. They are not straight anymore.

As a bonus, this "classic" set has been on this strap since 2002. This is how much they have gone out of alignment in almost 20 years:

View attachment 67512
Interesting. I have the “S” straplocks on all of my guitars. I have both the new version and the old and have never really had any issues with either. I do ensure they are tightened very well.
 
I welcome any and all discussions related to guitar security. It's a concept too many guitar manufacturers and strapmakers seem to have put little thought into. In fact, it seems
like it's part of a planned obsolescence scheme in some cases, so that your strap is going to be useless in a matter of months, or your guitar is going to crash to the ground.

I put many, many hours trying to devise alternate ways to secure straps, for little user cost, and after years, (not kidding) of experimenting the best, most elegant and convenient thing
thing I found was a simple larger and deeper strap button, so I designed my own. I'll show you some pics of experiments later, photosuckit is holding my old pics hostage.
 
I’ve have Schallers on many guitars and straps. The key I found many moons ago was to tighten the hell out of the lock on the strap. I use channel locks with a rag to hold the inside piece and then a deep well 3/8” ratchet to really, really tighten the nut.
 
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Fella in a BC band contacted me last night about a real sweet leather tooling project/idea. Threw him a price, factoring in a new leather stamp
hadsta come all the way from Great Britain, and cost us an extra two weeks and thirty bucks or so. Well..... CRAP, that kinda stung!

Suddenly, I got me a honey of an idea... started swarming through all my junk I got around here.
After a few minutes of buzzin away with an angle grinder and a file...

BOOM! This here is gonna be the bees knees.

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Oh Yeah!
 
What's on simmering on different burners of the Well-Hung stove today?
This here l'il birdie....

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Also, pressed a whole bunch of these into a 3 incher.

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Then I got stuck. Couldn't decide between a hot red center bolt, or a maybe a cool blue one.
Sooooo....

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This was still wet.... it's less purple now after the dye dried up, more a periwinkle, but I think it will darken down some after I dye the edges black and oil 'er all up.
 
Wish I had taken more pics of these while in progress, but this is where they are at, soon to hit the store.

Ace of Spades in pimpin' purple

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Hummingbird strap... one design on the front, one on the upper back, just need to do the lining/padding for this one now.

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just a couple finished shots here now that they are padded, lined sewn and complete... so I can move on!

Ace of Spades in Pimpin' Plum

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Hummybird

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These aboves are not custom orders, both now listed on reverb.

Here is one confused customer... Major Conundrum! Two beautiful and highly deserving guitars, but just ONE Sum Yung Long Hung Guy dragon strap.
Which is the superior combo? What would you do?

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The answer is obvious... buy another? LOL.
 
Workin' with a guy who wants a python strap with a sparkly plum crazy sort of vibe, and possibly chrome silver involved, and that goes as fast as this...

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I told him NO CAN DO, but I can make one that kind of looks like that in a python vibe, and actually has a metallic silver, so any transparent
dye lets a bit of the glow shine through... sort of like a candy apple sort of effect

so I got out some python stuff and started dyeing. He says aim for something between the two on the left.
I think we are just about there!

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If I listen close I can kind of hear a 340-ish rumble, and it definitely smells like gas.
 
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