Guitar Strap?

[Lace]

Hey everyone.

I was thinking about making a guitar strap for my boyfriends birthday. For those who have read my post in the member place know I work in a leather tack and repair shop - I haven't actually made anything outside of the shop, that was actually for my own personal use. It's strange no? I made myself a belt once actually... Just plain though with a precut belt piece.

Anywho. About the guitar strap. It's for an electric guitar and I'm HOPING that electric and acoustic are no different in how the strap is attached, in which case I can use my fathers strap for a pattern.

Now, I know that Tandy Leather has a kit for the straps, but I'm wondering if they are going to be flexable enough. He has a nylon one now and he likes it.

So here are my questions:

1. Would it be a good idea to make it out of nylon and stitch some leather patches to it with some tooling on it?

2. a) Is there a type of leather I could use that would make this guitar strap flexable yet really strong, and not grainy / fuzzy on the bottom.

I'm not using shitty leather, Maybe some kind of bridle leather or something? It has to be flexable and able to go through a slider so he can adjust it, beacuse he likes it shorter when he's playing with the boys as opposed to playing at home.

3. Do you think I should get a Tandy practice tooling kit to do before a screw this up?

Haha, I have this perfect vision in my head, and I'm sure it wont turn out that way. Any suggestions or ideas for this would be great

I'm not a newbie to leathercraft, but I am to leather art.. Haha. Lets put it that way

Thanks everyone :D

Lace

[rdb]

There's many style differences between electric, and acoustic. Some acoustics have only one peg to attach to. Others have an additional peg on the heel also. You have to know which it is, in order to measure the length properly.

On electrics, they have pegs, or a straplock peg. There are many mfgs, snd just as many size pegs.

Both types it would be good to know the peg layout, and size of the peg, so you get the right measurement, and the right size holes in the strap.

Many guitarists are very protective of their babies, and don't want any hardware on the straps that might scratch them. So if you use a buckle, make it a small one.

I use 7/8 oz leather, and neatsfoot. They all get softer with use. Bridle leather would be great.

[Romey]

If you plan on doing any carving or stamping on it you can use like a 3 to 6oz veg tan and back it with pig skin or garment leather. There is lots of things you can do. As RDB said and i am one, NOOOOO hardware on any guitars i have. I love the look for instance of a etched ranger buckle or somthing but for me the look of scratches on a 1000 to 3000$ guitar is worse then then the cool factor some hardware adds

Edited January 31, 2008 by Romey

[JPNet]

Here is one I made just for practice. I didn't have any specific need in mind, just playing with a few ideas. The notes on top are stamped with available Tandy tools. The pattern was laid out on paper before hand, traced, cut, beveled and then colored with antique stain. Some I painted with resist, others with mahogany. On the ends I came up with my own idea for adjustment. The holes and straps for the adjusters at each end are actually snug enough that they probably would never come out, but I cut a piece of leather larger than the slot and stitched them together so that the strap goes up through 1 slot, down through the next and through the sewn on piece. On the back, I glued on a padding made from 1/4 inch foam from Tandy with rubber cement, then glued on pigskin liner, again with rubber cement. The guitar strap is laced all the way around with a doule loop stitch, but the pigskin ends just before the slots for the adjusting strap start. If I did this again, I would probably take the pigskin all the way to the end, although it would be a lot more work finishing around the slots. I stained the pigsking just where the 1/4 inch padding lifts it and then used the Tandy stamps like rubber stamps to paint on the notes.