TVvoodoo's Straplab

[TVvoodoo]

Rough sanded and painted the headstock on this spare stratty neck I had kicking around. Just did a quick paint coat with a small brush.
Too damn cold to spray up here now. Good enough. Neck has a real vintage-aged orange poly on it and great big railroad tie frets.
Going to be kind of cool.

Then, sort of designed a logo for it, and was playing around with the waterslide paper. Back when I was real serious about refinishing guitars, and making logos for other folks on the forums
I bought like fifty sheets of this waterslide paper. Anyway, over the past few years I forgot the proper print settings so I been having a bit of trouble getting a ink drop on the paper.
Plus could be my printer is getting pretty long in the tooth. But at one time I had it all down. Maybe I took notes somewhere.

Obvs, these look like poo, but certainly good enough for size/placement purposes. I'll get it figured out soon enough. Still got a lot of gems to place here anyways.

The fun part is going to be getting a level surface where I want to drop waterslides. That might take some doing, but it's gotta be done I think.
Doing the gems around the post washers is a super PITA. Don't get me started.

A supportive fellow asked me on another forum about how all these stones, and the UV glue might affect tone, and if it will probably create controversy.
Like I asked him, have YOU ever heard of the magic of vibrating crystals? Yeah, I think you have. Freaky-deaky stuff.


Could be when this is thing is done, may have to make myself a special kind of strap so to keep it from gettin' away from me what with all the paranormal frequency waves shooting out of 'er. Just a theory in my head anyway. You can be damn sure I'm going to be very careful when I first plug it in. I'm not crazy-foolish enough to not be wary about messing with the supernatural. Best be prepared for something actually terrible dangerous, sterilize my nuts or something worse.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Yesterday my wife was looking for one of those awful xmas sweaters for an upcoming office thingy, but decided to make her own, so we ended up at a thrift shop. While there I found something really cool to... going to be some full-on 80's straps a-comin! Yay!

Here we got some pics back from a cool fellow, first time Well-Hungarian, now maybe converted for life...

Sayeth he:
"Incredible quality and workmanship. By far the most comfortable strap I have ever owned. Worth every penny."
David in NY

Matt in Kitchener Ontario picked up the last Jabberwock strap, also his first Well-Hung sling.
"High quality, unique, handmade leather strap! Amazing personal service and fast shipping. " Matt

Jimmy in Washington State had only two words to describe "Golden Boy' (Admittedly, one of my best).
"F'ing Killer!" James

Old Friend Jack is a man who knows how to control his feedback for musical and harmonious effect:
"Brad, Brad, Brad! This man sure knows how to help a man get his strap on! What?!? If you want to get the most comfortable guitar-slinging experience around, look no further. Get yourself Well-Hung and done! All six of my electrics are Well-Hung, comfortable and looking good to boot. Listen to the shoe company and Just Do It!" Jack in Toronto

Scott is one of many converted from clunky straplocks to Well-Hung Pro-Pins, (jumbo strap buttons)
"Great seller, and greatest strap buttons ever!" Scott in Pennsylvania

"Another trip to the strapeteria and another work of guitar hanging art arrived at my door. I’m at the point of having to buy more guitars so I can buy more of these straps" Eric down in 'Bama loves his Saddle Sore

OK that's more than enough positive affirmation for one Sunday morning LOL!

You know, I truly love what I do, and I'm almost making a living at it. But what really dusts my gingerbread is when all the work I do provides major enhancements to the gear life 'n times of my guitar bangin' brotherz and sisterz. A Well-Hung guitar strap can give back multiple times the smiles any new fuzz pedal will, almost guaranteed. Plus, none of them is going to cause you the major inconvenience of having to reconfigure your carefully curated pedal board!

This holiday season hang your stockings with care, but don't forget your shoulder and guitars can also benefit from some much-needed Well-Hung lovin' too.

oh, and Go Riderz ! Big game day, against a formidable team, Western Final, CFL

 

[TVvoodoo]

Working on a project for a TTR brother today, which makes this post extra fun!

Leather was cut yesterday, and "cased" overnight.... (moisturized) This is the first strap out of a brand new vegtan hide I purchased
a month or so ago... I can say that is it taking impressions superbly! Not all hides are equal.

Sorry for blurry pic... this is along the sides of the back and of the strap where the adjustment slots will go...
I call this kind of stuff "Cowboy border" stamping, it adds nice texture / interest in the end product

Grey is a funny colour to make with vegtan... because the underlying colour is not white but more skin colour, so it's kind of touchy.
This is after three applications of very diluted black dye. I stopped here, because it will get darker with the leather finish and didn't
want it to end up no contrast. I hope I didn't go too far! The step before this, it was still a little pinky brown.

I'm more worried about the jagged stripe here, not the spades which will be black in the end.
Also for the first time in this series, I did skullz on the tail strap, see how that looks in the end.

Also over the weekend I made three different design straps out of something I call "Loserhide."
If you remember the 80's patch leather, it's quite awesome to work with, feels great, and I think it looks super retro/awesome.

These straps turned out really great.

We have a "Small Time Loser" which is a 2.5" wide long hootenanny style strap (far right)
"Typical Average Loser" which is based on my most common strap design (far left)
and "Major Loser" which is in the style of higher end straps, but with a double D-ring adustment, (middle).

I am going to give all three of these straps away early in the New Year with my annual Well-Hung Endorserment Draw.

If you purchased a Well-Hung strap from me, this past year, or even before then, you may have earned a ballot in the draw.
Instructions on how to get ballots were provided with the strap you purchased.

You still have time to get in the draw! There are really not that many ballots in it this year, so my suggestion is get at it before
the end of December if you would like to win a Well-Hung strap or other cool swag I will be giving away.

 

[LiveeviL2000]

I remember that leather pattern. Everyone was rockin' that when I was growing up. Except, it usually wasnt real leather.

The Aces look really nice so far.
You are an amazingly skilled artisan sir!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Oh it's real leather for sure. But I think it's mostly lamb and goat skin. it's thin stuff but layered so much with all the seams it's still very strong.
I reinforce the straps inside too. No worries there!

More Ace #5

Here after letting the dye dry overnight, I am about to join the resistance.

We want to retain the colour on the inside here as much as possible. So I coat it with something clear that will resist the next dye step
which will be black. Two resist coats go on, put it by the woodstove for a few hours. I'll do the second coat and let it sit overnight, by
the wood stove so it cures real nice and dye black tomorrow.

It's still gray a bit darker now, but also picks up a bit of brown tone with the clearcoat. Hope the customer will be ok with this!!!
I think it's also going to look different after we do the next few steps. Hang with me here, it's going to be awesome...
I promise!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Probably getting sick of this same project, but I promised I'd document!

Ace #5 was coated with resist #2 last night, then put again by the stove to dry overnight. First thing this morning, black dye stage #1, waited a few hours then did another black dye stage.

Then, just finished an hour or so sanding down the edges and hand-burnishing them to a nice smooth semi-shine. I do this with a homemade tool, a chunk of wood with heavy duty cotton glued to it 3 sides, last side has a thick piece of vegtan leather. Wet the edges, let 'em sit for half an hour, then rub the living heck out of it cotton side first, then leather side.
Smooths everything down, makes the fibres stick together and seals the edges real nice. Combo of friction/heat and lots of pressure does it up good.

It's quite a lot of manual work actually, should look into figuring out some sort of bench grinder rig someday to help with this.

I burnish now because next stage is oiling, replenishing the natural oils in the hide, helps that vegtan soften and be more flexy.

I found if you oil before you burnish, the leather fibers on the sides don't take up water no good, and it's real hard to burnish proper.
Tonight I'll be doing some detail work on the skulls to bring them out, and metal up this badass even moar! :dood:

While I've been working on ACE, had a few other irons in the fire, and got 'em into the store.

A set of four Loser-Hide straps which I haven't made for a number of years. One of my favorites. Screams totally-wicked 80's, nobody else dared to make them. Dig this strap so much hadda keep one back for myself!

Why loser-hide? Well, it pains me to reveal this sad, sad tale from my youth. Kinda mentally traumatic actually. Go check it out on Reverb... all the painful deets of the story are laid out there.

(link in my sig).

A Matrika Midas verson, Kind of a Unicorn.... you seldom find 3" wide hootenanny ribbon-ish straps, and this one is
padded in the Well-Hung way ta boot! Vintage vibe with modern strapology adaptions. Excellent goldtop or custom Black Beauty sling

And, Shock & Awe # 81 is fresh out of basic, ready for deployment, pissed off and hungry for action

 

[LiveeviL2000]

I feel I am learning a ton about leather working. Will there be a quiz at the end? Because I really havent been taking notes ...

The Aces belt is lookin' good!

Cool story about the strap. You shouldn't feel alone. I grew up in the 80s and like I said before, that leather was everywhere.

Love the Shock an Awe!

 

[TVvoodoo]

No damn quiz @LiveeviL2000 , but you deserve the whole story, so you can tell it to the grandkids@

 

[TVvoodoo]

How about some metallic silver skullz before clearcoat? Not bad for old man eyes!

 

[LiveeviL2000]

They look really good. Did you dry brush them to get that effect?

 

[TVvoodoo]

These are so tiny, kind of hard to work with. The paste wax is not really "wet", but sorta?
I'm using a spent medium sized felt marker, the felt tip part works good to rub this paste wax on,
and provides me a little accuracy. I clearcoated both pieces this morning. and it rubbed some silver off on some of the
skulls. so, I dried the clearcoat by the stove for a few hours, and just now went over it again to touch up some of the
skulls before the next clearcoat. Goal is to get two more coats of clear on today, then tomorrow will add padding
stitching etc.. sew it up!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Clearcoated a few times, lined, padded, stitched and buffed out... pretty sexy strap, as far as badass stylie goes

My Well-Hung friends, thank you from the bottom of my dark and knarly heart for your support of my little venture.

If sadly you still remain one of the unWell-Hung, but are looking to get Hung For The Holidays... best act fast! Call it a family gift, because it will produce smiles a year long, this year, next year, and many more after that! Your step will get livelier, your riffs will be nastier, beautiful ladies will suddenly notice and show interest, and you may begin exaggerating all sorts of things that ain't even one bit true.

Happy Holidays from all of the Staff here in the StrapLab!

Brad,

Foreman of Dead Cow Beatin', Head Floor Vacuumer, Executive Bobbin Filler and Chief Operatin' Glue Sniffer, (there are no other employees for me to berate or force even the most menial jobs onto).

 

[Session 5]

Clearcoated a few times, lined, padded, stitched and buffed out... pretty sexy strap, as far as badass stylie goes

My Well-Hung friends, thank you from the bottom of my dark and knarly heart for your support of my little venture.

If sadly you still remain one of the unWell-Hung, but are looking to get Hung For The Holidays... best act fast! Call it a family gift, because it will produce smiles a year long, this year, next year, and many more after that! Your step will get livelier, your riffs will be nastier, beautiful ladies will suddenly notice and show interest, and you may begin exaggerating all sorts of things that ain't even one bit true.

Happy Holidays from all of the Staff here in the StrapLab!

Brad,

Foreman of Dead Cow Beatin', Head Floor Vacuumer, Executive Bobbin Filler and Chief Operatin' Glue Sniffer, (there are no other employees for me to berate or force even the most menial jobs onto).

Well Brad, I am disappointed to see no Godin, in the Well - Hung stockings. So let me show you a few of mine sitting in their nice stands...Merry Christmas!

 

[TVvoodoo]

I considered it. Also wanted to do a gretsch. But Godin headstocks are just kinda boring

 

[Session 5]

I considered it. Also wanted to do a gretsch. But Godin headstocks are just kinda boring

Well i believe they deserve to be in there, after all they sell more guitars than Fender or Gibson in North America, so i guess they can't be as boring as you say Hmmm...

 

[TVvoodoo]

How can that be? How do we fact check this? I don't believe it for a second.

I looked it up... Godin doesn't even get a mention, nor Seagull or Norman, (the latter obviously named for you).

sales stats

Where you getting your info from @Session 5

 

[Session 5]

Starts at time aprox 16:23

 

[TVvoodoo]

@Session 5 I don't hear him saying they sell more than F or G in North America. Probably because: boring headstocks.

...... edit .....
... that crazy assertation by that mcknight dude bugged me all night! I am cognitively dislocated! Reverb did a fairly recent article related, Godin or its sub-brands don't show up on any Top 20 Selling guitar lists, electric, bass or acoustic...

2021 Guitar Sales by Model, Top 20

Reverb is not the end-all be-all, this includes used also, but I can't see how that claim holds water. If they make so many, where are they all going?

Godin makes a fine guitar, hardly ever hear a bad word about 'em, (much like Yamaha), but that outrageous market penetration claim you make has to be grossly exaggerated. Like something you'd see in an investors' annual report.

Speaking of deep penetration, Well-Hung, the infinitely superior guitar strap brand throughout the entire ever-expanding universe, would never, ever stoop to such spurious hyperbole and shamelessly self-serving claims such as that.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Ahh there's probably a better place for this but I was too lax to look.
So today we got kind of a blizzard happening. I figure about 5 inches so far today though it seems to be letting up. Been twice the snow up here already this winter than the whole winter last year.
probably about a foot and a half anyway, it's good snow as can be expected, powdery/fluffy and not wet and heavy.

Decided today was the day for some pea soup... I have my own recipe I've figured out figured I'd share. Now I ain't no Martha Stewart, but I do ok. I do most of the serious cooking in our home.
daily, entertaining and usually special occasions, with help if I can recruit it.

Before going into shovel mode, I put a "froze hambone package" in a stock pot with two quarts stock, one chicken, one vegetable and three quarts water.
My frozen hambone packs are created after we have a smoked ham for dinner, so that package will be a typical 1 pound hambone, with some decent ham still attached,
a couple of whole roasted onions, and some drippings/sauce, about a cup and a half worth, 3/4 cup ham drippings, 3/4 cup baked pineapple juice and bits.

I expect you could add the pinapple juice to the broth, optionally. This is what gives my soup a different complexity, a tart/sweet other pea soups don't have.
We typically throw a can of crushed pineapple in when we roast a ham, along with a couple whole white onions, sliced in half if you have to.
I reserve those onions, the bone with some meat on it, and most of the drippings into a ziplock bagt that goes in the freezer for days just like today.

Anyway, get into the habit of putting a couple of those whole onions in when you roast a chicken, turkey, pot roasts too and don't eat them! Keep them.... not only will they boost along this meal, but also next ones when you make your broth after reserving the carcass, bone/meat for soup later on. I got this tip from a chef, a couple of roasted whole onions added in that package REALLY helps that broth into yummyland, like I really can't impart how much. A lot! It's thinking ahead with some brain smartness, which I don't often boast about, you can thank me later!

Ok so put that broth on, get it up to a happy boil, then back off so it's sitting at just less than a rolling boil, like it wants to boil? But it just ain't quite there. Drain out the big roasted onions, put them
in a blender, add two good stalks of celery and two whole garlic cloves, and a cup or so of the broth you are building. Hammer that blend button and hold for ten, fifteen beats.
Open it up and have a smell. HEAVEN! Pour it back in the broth. It's going to foam up a bit, that will go away over time.

Your broth instantly gets richer, but it still has a ways to go yet. You could go several soup directions from this point.. today it's pea soup. Turn it up to serious boil, then
right back down again, to that "almost" boil, going steady.

Go do something else for an hour and a half or so. More is even better. I moved a whole a bunch of white stuff. Oh man does my hip feel it now!
Gotta learn to throw left-handed.

Stamp out your boots, fish that crazy hot hambone out of your broth and let it cool a bit, then strip the remaining meat and edible bits off it.
It's nice to have at least a good cup and a half or so, if* you were thinking ahead. Some bits of pork fat in there???

OH NO!!! CALAMITY!!!? Nope, don't panic... this, in my opionion, is actually very excellent!

Get all those bits cut into pieces, smaller, but not as microscopically small as store bought soup LOL! Put 'em back in.
Add to broth 1/2 cup pot barley, and 3 cups split peas for thick soup, 1.5-2 cups for thinner soup. Toss a couple of bay leaves in, and a tablespoon of dried rosemary, half a teaspoon of salt, and pepper to taste. Turn that up again to a big serious boil for a just few minutes, then turn it back down again to where it was before. Brad's "almost boil" I do this a lot, I work my stove control like some dudes work the volume pot on a gat. Let's call it my Stove Tone. Just a bit of crunch but only when you dig in, no bees with chainsaws.

Here is is now, the peas will eventually cook through and help this broth become a nice pea soup green. There's rice in this spoon, because we didn't have enough pot barley, so
dialed back a bit on the peas but added 3/4 cup of lentils, rice and pot barley soup mix. I figure hey, whatever. You can't really bugger this up, unless you put ketchup in it or something.
I have some "liquid smoke" that I may experiment with this time. Bring that smoked ham flavour out front a bit. Not sure.




About forty minutes before dinnertime lazy peel two or three medium taters, cut in to 1\2 or smaller cubes, add 'em. Ten minutes before serving, I like to add about
a quarter cup of milk, it creams it up a little bit, or a couple tablespoons of sour cream. Optional.

Serve with a nice crusty french bread, like the one on the day-old cart you can get for a deal, or crusty buns, preferably on a day you just moved a bunch of snow.

While I am posting on the internet, shoveling snow, and cooking dinner for my lovely wife, I am also working on this quickie custom leather strap. I'm quite a catch.
it's a fairly easy job...but a rush gift needs to get somewhere for a Christmas office party.... gonna be dicey if we can make it.. we shall see!



Hope your day is treating you well. I need to call the wife she if she'll pick up a big french loaf on the way home

 

[TVvoodoo]

I was visiting one of the forums this morning focused on singlecuts and came across a thread discussing a fellow guitarist goes by the name Romeo Rose. Have you heard of the dude?
I never had before, but once I dug in a bit on this individual, well it's kind of like watching a troupe of angry circus clowns being smacked down by napalm. Quite the rabbit hole

EXTREME VIDEO WARNING: rather questionable guitar playing, out-of-control ego, empty legal threats, extra salty language, and possible Randy Rhoads fetishization (not all bad things).

Anyway, after marveling at the guitar and life wisdom on display from Mr. Rose, you have to know I'm also always looking at straps. Been thinking of trying a strap with a name in a "gothic" sort of olde English sort of font for a while, and here was a fab opportunity to pay tribute to the man, the internet legend, the enigma that is Romeo Rose

So, if you, the notorious Mr. Rose happens to be watching, or maybe somebody here fancies themselves a bit of a "Romeo", you might be interested in this project. He has not contacted me to commission this strap, I was simply inspired and compelled to this project, such as a derelict might be drawn to a cheerfully burning dumpster during briskly frigid weather.

First we find a gothic font style that would translate well in leatherwork... there are not that many! Transfer and carve that sucker in

Add a cowboy-ish border to the strap... in this case plenty of stars seemed rather appropriate

Bevel the letters inward for a change so that they will be "intaglio" which is a fancy art term for counter-relief, or below the main surface. This is because my plan is to fill the letters with a contrasting colour... might be sparkles, or gold or silver paint, not sure yet. But agree with me that it's gotta have Romeo Rose "too much is still not yet enough" flavor for sure

Black dye!

a recent quickie custom for someone in Ontario, giving his boss a cool gift for xmas. Give that fella a big fat raise!

Was looking for something "rustic" that would look good on a telecaster, and look like it had some gigs under it already, kind of a worn cowboy style I guess.

Not much else going on here today. very cold! -30 degrees and the stove is as stoked as I am! Wifes' car wouldn't go this morning. seems our GFI outlet has finally reached it's best before date. Cut out in the middle of the night on us twice now. At 30 below, you need a pretty good battery to turn something over enough to fire it up, and hers has been suspect. Luckily I figured something might be up, so I had parked my unit so the noses were facing each other. Was able to boost her fairly easy. I'm not just here for opening jars y'know!

I think the cutoff for Christmas delivery is done for USA residents, still can probably get something to my fellow Canuckians in time. But, don't let that stop you from getting Well-Hung before 2022 comes around!