TVvoodoo's Straplab

Finished a couple of straps yesterday now out headed Toronto way for a couple of Canuckian Guitar forum members who happen to be return customers and working pros. Last I knew they were banging it out with an outfit called Pretty in Plaid .... not sure how pretty those two dudes are, maybe it depends on how much makeup, and those schoolgirl skirts,... or maybe it just to look good up on the marquee?

Anyway, they were interested in a little flash for some extra stage presence so I whipped up a couple of Star Power straps in a material I called "Blizzard." You've seen it before... just a winter storm of silver and light blue sparkles on dark dark blue velvet - kind of has a flip/flop effect to it, dark to light... Very cool stuff. Soft and showy!

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The last time they ordered, they opted for my Class Act back buckle design, and it seemed to me they really wanted
to go that way again. It really is the bees knees! I hope they chip in here with some pics when they arrive.

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Why the heck would a fella like me be toiling away in the shop on a Sunday?
Well, my other option was to accompany my wife while she did some clothes shopping in the city.
NO siree! Lets do some building!
 
Today off the bench came a few new 1969 Series straps, named "Galveston." All 1969 straps named for a song that made the charts of that year.
My typical build but these came together in an extra nice way. I love how the soft chocolatey leather matched so well with the inner part of the hippie ribbon.

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A great match for a vintage tobacco or sunburst strat or paul, I think. Great vintagey look but with
3" wide ultra-padded shoulder luxury.

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To be fully honest, my afternoon was pretty much shot though. I took a delivery from "Kat" who I keep calling my personal guitar tech, which he resists and shakes his head at. Probably mostly because my guitary skills are not really deserving of his magic).
We chatted about how his life is going, then when he left I plugged in, turned up and fiddled 'til my fingers hurt.

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He completed wiring and full set up, including a hand-carved a moosebone nut for my gem-encrusted Paisley Royale, a partscaster project I cobbled together a while back. I can do this stuff too, but I find it much more satisfying to give this young fella some work

My goodness, what a fine job! I'm stymied how he got this thing to sustain the way it does. It's crazy good. With the hot rails, not all that twangy, but it's a super fun guitar with a big fat handful of neck and jumbo frets. I do need to do something about the sharp top edges of the rails thought, they are jabbing into my hand when I play, wanting to turn my fleshy thumb part into hamburger. Too bad he didn't catch that. I'll get some better pics of it in coming days, probably a video too. I paid him handsomely, sent him off with another guitar job, a prototype strap to keep, and a set of pro-pins for a project bass he's working on.

"Kat" is a cool young fella, a musician himself... amateur, but dedicated enough to have finished some of his own solo EP work. I figured I'd post his latest here, he's ok with it. It's def in the new wave/postpunk vein, quirky but fun stuff, and I like to stay open-minded about such things.

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Today I completed a rare custom called An0NaMelee - just a very, very long plain black strap, 3' wide... padded. I don't like doing it. I really hate making plain black straps, but this fellow is a multi-repeat customer, and I'm a little hungry... so I swallowed my pride, and just did it, and felt like a strap ho the whole damn time. He has a thing where he likes me to sew an initial on the tail strap... so that's a bit different

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One strap you CAN get is another new No Prisoners strap called Beast Mode. It's kind of fun!
Lots of brassy grommets, maybe 80 or so. Red brown leather, and so very comfy!

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On the main body, I picked up some of this dark gray/slightly olive green leather during a trip to the city in early Jan. I grabbed a full side of it 'cause it was on sale, and this is the first strap I've made with it. It's one of those colours that's not black, but very dark and still interesting. Probably end up looking mostly black under most stage lighting though.

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This one adjusts between about 42"-58" max.

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Typical 3" wide on the shoulder, luxury padding that often causes an attack of sudden guitarist "O" face soon as they slip under! Go on, visit the Reverb store strapateria (link below) and get yourself Well-Hung. Like each and every handsome and virile member of the Cult of Well-Hung guitarists, these straps are Built To Perform™ LOL!
 
Today, just a fun day in the Straplab. Usually try to take sundays off but I was bored and was dreaming of snakes last night. I know, right? Now, I make all kinds of snake pattern straps, mostly python pattern stuff... but a few months ago a fellow on the MLP forum pined openly about not being able to find a decent Rattler skin guitar strap for a reasonable price

I looked into it, and you can get rattler hide, but its rather costly - and rattlers don't really grow big enough to make a decent 3" wide strap out of so it becomes more of an accent thing. Don't much like working with actual snakeskin anyway. It can be really weak, brittle and then you have all kinds of Import/customs BS to deal with. Plus it can also look shabby pretty fast too, once it starts de-scaling, and nobody needs that!

I then figured I'd see if anybody made rattlesnake embossed/dyed cowhide... (most of the python straps I make are done that way). I searched and searched, and could not find anything like that, any sort of rattlesnake variety of wich I have learned there are many -Timber, Diamondback Eastern or Western, Massasauga, or Prairie, plus more

I've had some success making up custom python colour patterns myself, I figured how hard could a rattler be? I decided to work with some white snake embossed vinyl I had kickin' around here for a little sunday test drive and here's some results.

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Personally, being a northerner I've never even seen a rattler before... maybe in a zoo, perhaps. I do remember once hiking somewhere in southern Saskatchewan as a young buck, and I heard that made me jump, and I skedaddled pretty fast and wasn't gonna mess around. Yeah, chicken!

I'm sure These ain't going to fool anyone who knows, but I learned a lot in a couple hours of tests. I'd say from about five feet out they look somewhat legit. Here up close in your face, not really. A combination of layering paints, a couple colours of leather dyes, block printing, ragging... adding and removing material in creative ways got me here. One darker, one on the lighter side.

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I think i need to find a way to get more accuracy and definition. I also have to better define the valleys between the scales a bit more too... I'll figure something out. For the pattern, this is a bit messy. Probably some sort of stencil in combo with a block print when I try this again. The colours look alright, maybe could be more gray. I'll have to clearcoat this stuff to preserve it this way, I'll probably make some budget friendly straps out of it see how it looks, and if they sell.

When I decide to bring some beige or vintage white scale embossed leather in, I'll be a bit ahead of the game. It will be cool to be able to provide an actual leather diamondback patterned strap in leather someday, nobody else has that.
 
OK, OK very funny fellows. But the laughs on you! Just you wait. I-ma squeeze into my spandex and cowboy boots, one of my wifes blouses and a concho belt, and throw on a wig to cover up my receding hairline. Then, I-ma fire up the Paisley Royale through an amp turned to eleven.


Every one of you knows all these in combination could give even a regular no-talent like me a real edge at the Whitesnake tribute band auditions.
 
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TVvoodoo said:
OK, OK very funny fellows. But the laughs on you! Just you wait. I-ma squeeze into my spandex and cowboy boots, one of my wifes blouses and a concho belt, and throw on a wig to cover up my receding hairline. Then, I-ma fire up the Paisley Royale through an amp turned to eleven.


Every one of you knows all these in combination could give even a regular no-talent like me a real edge at the Whitesnake tribute band auditions.
Click to expand...
Brad you have my permission to post more videos of your auditions.

Nice playin!!!
 
Awww gee thanks Vito! - You know about this time last year the way my fretting fingers were all burnt up and cracked and bleeding I was worried If I could even play much guitar anymore at all. I still wish I had more time for it, it's up to me to make that time.

Got two Rattlers done this morning. All buttoned up and finish-protected. One very long low rider at 2-3/4" wide up to 65" long a bit darker, and the other one, more regular 3" width that tops out around 59"

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Below a bit wider, not quite at as long. Also has more softy dark dark gray suede nubuck leather on the nose and tail,
instead of the shiny stuff.

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Of course, both of ultra-padded and ready to melt faces near you! But, vegan leather here, no real aminals. Definitely some room for improvement the patterning, but I am pretty pleased at my first couple of stabs at it, particularly on the colour, if not the pattern.
From about three feet out, quite convincing.
 
New in the shop... a couple of Vegan straps. Well, partly. I still haven't seen a material that works as well as just good good leather for nose and tail ends, and I'm not really looking either. The real and true natural organic stuff is very special.

But from time to time, I dolike to mix it up a bit. If you are the distinquished sort of chap would like to strut around wearing a strap that reveals you as an ultra-wealthy and unusually cruel DGAF type of character, nothing does it better than ostrich. This has much to do with how Ostriches are treated to get those nipple/nubbies, and it kind of makes me sick to think about it, and I suggest you do NOT research it. However, FAUX ostrich, vegan leather allows you to carry off that appearance and attitude, while still allowing a fellow to sleep at night.

Super cool texture, for a plain old black strap.

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Still gotta use the trustiest good moo-moo leather for the nose, ladder and tail strap though. This time I chose cowhide that is a dark, dark coffee brown. Really unless light is right on it, it's black, like in the low light situations most of you fellows seem to look most handsome in

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While it still takes me the same amount of time to make a strap out of upholstery vinyl as leather,
and it's probably easier care for you the user, I don't feel right charging quite as much - because
vinyl is about 1/2- 2/3rds the cost of a similar leather. Well except this stuff. LOL! An ostrich guitar
strap might cost a thousand bucks easy. Probably could find decent cowhide with this pattern.
Let's see if these sell. They are quite nice... not plasticky feeling.

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One strap company we all know seems to get a lot of mileage out of using "Vegan" leather. At least that stuff ain't as bad as some of the other ones who use bonded "leather," which isn't real leather or unreal leather, it's somewhere in-between, and it's rather evil stuff too. Mostly because current laws allow a those companies to outright hoodwink you about what it actually is. But I digress.

Here I have to admit here I've been distracted this week by a rather special NGD that's taken me four doggone years to realize.
I'll post some more pics somewhere if there's a TTR NGD section here somewhere - seems to be a section for pretty much
everything else :rolf:

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Happy Friday! One of my more popular lines, "Matrika" was one of the very first designs I came up with maybe ten years ago. Since then I have refined it a little bit over the years, but they retain the original pillowy cloud feel with the look of a retro embroidered floral hootenanny-style strap. This ribbon was custom-loomed for me years ago in Pakistan, I think I had to order like 50 yards of each at the time, and I got it in five or six colours. I am finally now running out. They mix one base colour with metallic silver, creme flowers and black. I still have some red left too.

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However the MOSTEST WONDROUSLY BEAUTIFUL thing about the Well-Hung Matrika strap, is... it's a clearly a ribbon strap but a RARE 3" wide one, with sturdy black leather ladderback adjuster, and front nose. So, they don't ooze of cheapy-cheap like so many 2" wide ribbon floating buckle beginner bundle straps. These adjust from 45-59 pretty easy. While a lot of ribbon straps have brutal sharp annoying edges? I build out a bit wider on these, to be slightly over 3" wide, with about 1/8" of soft velvety black fabric on each side to keep a soft edge against your neck.

Watch the Well-Hung store for these two upcoming probably over the weekend. The last of the Goldtop material on hand now all used up to make a final three... and one rare special vintage orange one as a separate listing.

Have a great weekend, play some guitar!
 
New in the Reverb shot today, fully-charged and brimming with visual energy to power up your rig...
ZAP! Coppertop

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This one a mix between auto upholstery vegan leather on the main body, and good good leather on the nose and tail purely for trustiness where it counts most. 3 " wide, long super padded with rolled edges and double stitched on the body. yadda yadda.

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I saw some coppery telecasters online over the weekend I guess that stuck in my brain, to see if I could make something to match nice.

Also this weekend a photo sent in of Chloe, and her super hot new purple burst LTD, anybody here would be proud to sling, I'm sure! She received a custom-tooled Well-Hung strap for Christmas, with her name in purple sparkles... and now she gets a sweet singlecut to better match the strap. Strap and guitar just a tad big for her now, but she's going to grow into both.

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Young lady's smile says it all.
 
Just got this sweet combo pic in from Phil out Chicago way... if his glittery G&L ASAT Classic sporting some fun and showy polka-dots.

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He asked me to shorten this one for him as he wears higher than I typically build for, and the operation was successful. I normally don't like modifying my straps, more often wrecks them than improves, but it worked out and and I hope he really gets his buddy guy on like crazy.

Today I finished a custom started yesterday headed out to Florida for an OG Well-Hung guitarist who probably picked up his first ones back around 2013, maybe sooner. Way back then I was a member of the original agile guitar forum, as Rondo Music was shipping out AL series 12 pounders LPs fairly regular, had an eleven pounder myself for a time. An ideal great place to start strapcrafting with a focus towards offering comfort & weight relief from shoulder-buster guitars. Back then my thing was called "Strap ATTACK!" - but they really weren't all that warlike, mostly peaceful. Those fellas were guinnea pigs test piloting many of my early prototypes, and various crazy ideas as I refined my designs.

Anyway, built for a working pro who I haven't strapped for years... and thankfully I hear the old ones are holding up too, which made me do a virtual fist pump. I have always built for durability and trustiness, and believe I'm getting better every year, so hearing the old stuff is still rockin' is great!


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Jeff is in a different new band called "Brown Bolt," and a tan leather ZAP! custom with a brown bolt up front was just the thing he needed... I did do it in a python pattern, to juice up a bit.

While that one won't show up in the store, this one is new in there already as of today. A new "Crystal Blue Persuasion," extra long 1969 series piece that goes as long as about 62" on black. Built specifically to lull you into a reverb and tremolo-drenched state of retro grooviness, and guitarin' comfort, with a black, white and slate blue hootennany ribbon.

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Happy Valentines Day... How many of you figure you'll be in the doghouse with young George?
Dig him... but man, his style sure don't work well at all for syncing LOL!

 
Today is been an exercise in craftology! Some challenges but nothing I can't rise above

Customer send me some black and white printed snakeskin which was his hearts' delight... Says he wants to go all Rick Neilson with that shadizzle. Then, he decided he wanted to dress it up even more by incorporating some of my prophecy design elements, with the layered cross effect and a little hardware...

Well the Snake arrived Monday, and it seemed pretty alright actually. I don't have much experience working with real snakeskin... like I've mentioned before, it's pretty delicate, and brittle... rather thin... so a fellow has to treat it with kid gloves. This strap, like most others will have rolled edges so I needed to shore up that snake pelt by layering it with a layer of canvas cloth to toughen it up, and give it some more flexiness

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Four feet of checkerboard fun! While that was setting up, I went about carving out a silvery gunmetal gothic cross

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Once I had the strap main body made, with some black velvet for the cross to sit on, I sewed all these elements together, so I could add the hardware prior to final assembly

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Added some shiny hardware... some nickel spots in a couple different sizes, and a centre concho supplied. This is how it's going to sit overnight, I'll pad it out add a lining and do final assembly and hole punching tomorrow. It's pretty loud and crazy, and when we were throwing around ideas, I had to warn him he was edging into homermobile territory, but it's coming together nicely, and going to be crazy cool once it's completed, most certainly tomorrow.

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Also pleased announce the Shock & Awe Militia has conscripted a new member! A forum brother from another mother out in South Dakota is now getting his pre-mission briefing, waiting for #88 to be airdropped to his forward location. The weapon he is going to sling this thing on? OMG... it's going to be epic, and I feel sorry for any in his path once he gets all locked 'n loaded.
 
Today work continued on Prophecy custom for a forum brother, different forum, actually he's on a whole bunch of 'em and he's been posting progress photos everywhere... his enthusiasm is contagious LOL!

Like him, this thing veers way over to the crazy end of the bar, it's going to overpower pretty much any guitar it goes on. But a fella wants what he wants.

So this morning there it is waiting for me, laying there in my sexy strap dungeon, all in bondaged up pinchy painful pleasure clips. The safe word here in the StrapLab happens to be: "More!" which can get a little confusing sometimes.

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I wanted to try to line up the squares perfect on each side but with the extreme adhesive I use you only get one crack at it and I was a bit off. Just like I've found in guitar refinishing often turns out the back will probably be perfect, if the front isn't LOL!

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The snake hide came all rolled up, but it was sold as 4.25" wide. Well it surely was in a couple places, but it meandered a bit, and was down to about 3.3 inches in a few spots which made my job of getting a 3" strap with rolled edges a bit more challenge than I was expecting. Particularly as this stuff needed to be reinforced for me to have it trusty enough to send out.

But I managed. Wasn't enough to use for a tail strap but I like the contrast of a plain black one and the black nose anyway. Way stronger leather too. Not flippy floppy stuff. Good stiff 8.5 oz black drum dyed

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Ta-Dah! "Check 1,2,3" Prophecy custom complete... 3" wide, ultra padded, to soothe a guitar brothers' achin' back.
I hope in 10 days or so he comes back to confirm on all those forums he's posting on that I sure ain't no dang fibber!

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Last night dreaming, i kept going in my head what thread to use... White? Black? White? Ended.up going with the white to match around the cross inset. Just made more sense, and I'm glad I did it that way. Still have to punch holes for those confounded Schallers on the way out the door.

I don't know if I want to work with real snake much in the future. It's so very brittle! Finish wants to crack a bit when you bend it, which is not apparent on the white parts, but is on the black where the white hide shows through a bit. It does look a bit road-worn, in a good way so that's a bit of a plus. I think with a little attention with the conditioning and care it will last a long time and still look pretty good while doing that.

It would be crazy on a checkerboard guitar, but I don't think thats what its going on.

Forgot to note this is a rare hide from the highly endangered Ska Cobra... a super vicious beast many would prefer to see extinct. They do have one amusing habit of kicking out their tiny little legs when they dance
 
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Brought back an old favorite, a few of them in fact. The Well-Hung Carpetbagger Series is comprised of straps made of tapestry-like material. You've seen this stuff at gran's house, or perhaps it was once a piece of vintagey luggage. Victorian, classic. Here are some "Dead Flowers" made special for you adn your ragged company.

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Very substantial woven fabric, with a plethura of great colours. These look particularly sweet on spruce tops, or fenders that come in all those pastel Easter egg colours. Most likely it's in this pattern!

Blues, greens, pinks, golds, purples and black. An arty bohemian vibe that won't quit. But the best part? I think it might be the thickness of the fabric, which almost seems to be padding in itself... combined with the luxurious layered padding I build inside. 43"-58", and 3" wide with substantial leather ends. New in the store today.

 
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