My First Wide Guitar Strap

[TapTapTap]

In my last post on guitar straps (a variety of guitar straps) I said I was working on a wide strap with basket weave and celtic weave. The strap is 3 inches wide and the overall length is 58 inches. It can be extended to 64 inches for the well built musician. The basket weave stamp is the Tandy Craftool X510. The strap is lined with pigskin suede and all edges are hand sewn. It has a "Ranger Buckle Set" fitted for the western look. The buckle set allows for another 2 inches of adjustment. As usual, comments are appreciated - Positive or negative. Regards, TapTapTap

Myleatherwork.com

[Murray]

really nice work. Looks great.

[Cyberthrasher]

The whole thing looks great!! I'm working on a similar buckle adjustment, backwards from the traditional method of the buckle being on the adjustment strap instead of the main.

CC time: Looking at your celtic work, it looks like some of your lines vary in thickness. Also, if you model the edges after beveling to round them up, they will look like they sit together a lot better. One of the biggest things I see with celtic work (mine included) is the tendency for the lines to go under in one spot and then come out the other side ever so slightly off. it's something that takes a lot of practice but makes a world of difference. Even when I focus I still miss the line sometimes.

[David8386]

Nice looking, stamping is good and I think the layout of the strap with the buckle and shape of the strap is very well done. Overall it is a very nice looking strap.

David

[TapTapTap]

Hi Cyberthrasher, you hit the nail right on the head! I have only done a couple of belts and one guitar strap with the celtic design and I am now practicing my celtic work to correct the mistakes i made in this strap. Looking back at my tracing of the design I found that the problem started there and in my rush to get the strap completed and posted I just lost the plot. I note that your photo shows you with a guitar. From your personal experience could you advise which width is the most popular - 21/2 inches or 3 inches. Thanks for your comments, I appreciate the advice.

regards,

TapTapTap

[Cyberthrasher]

Oh, it really varies. I even switch it up myself. I would never use anything less than 2 1/2 myself. A lot of my customers prefer the 2 1/2, but that's mainly because that's what they're used to. Some change their minds when I tell them that a 3" solid leather strap isn't going to dig into your shoulder like the cheap cloth ones do. As a tooler, I usually prefer 3" because it gives me a lot more room to work with for artwork

Here's a good article that Paul Burnett posted here which explains what I was talking about (page 2). Also, I had noticed after the fact that there's a few spots that your line flares out as it goes underneath. This happens a lot when you bevel the line that goes under first and then to the one that crosses. It just gets squished down into that flare. Try to make sure you do your crossing line first and then come back and do the line that goes under. If you can't avoid it, come back and square things back up one more time.

http://leatherworker...showtopic=19995

Edited January 30, 2013 by Cyberthrasher

[Greystone]

was wondering 2.5" or 3" ,,, for a strap, for a woman, light framed 5'5 @ 115#,, acoustic guitar thoughts??????

[Cyberthrasher]

was wondering 2.5" or 3" ,,, for a strap, for a woman, light framed 5'5 @ 115#,, acoustic guitar thoughts??????

It's all a matter of comfort and weight distribution. I'd say smaller framed people would probably be fine with 2.5", but someone with a heavier guitar might prefer 3" to distribute the weight better.

[Greystone]

thanks , working on some ideas,, db

Edited January 30, 2013 by Greystone

[BubbaJon]

Not a critique - just an observation. As an owner of nice guitars and rifles I find I look for straps to have as little metal as possible to avoid nicks, dings and scratches.

Of course I could be compensating for my own klutziness.