Any experienced strap makers care to share the basics?

[Gray]

Any experienced strap makers care to share some of the basics? I'm not a musician, have no clue...but I'd love to do a guitar stap for my daughter down in Florida, and I'm thinking it may not be a bad thing to add to my repertoire. She plays an acoustic six-string. She says she can have her guitar modified to take a strap easily enough. How do straps attach? Is there a typical range and method of adjustment? Lined or not? Padded? Any links or patterns out there? TIA.

--Phil

[Mike Phelps]

Gray, attached are pictures of some of mine. The blue one is the simplest. Just cut and wet form the slots for the strap to pass through. Acoustics are fairly lightweight so no padding is actually necessary, just nice. I use sheep shearling on my high end straps and the fake stuff on others. I glue and hand saddle stitch mine, mainly because I like the way heavy waxed thread looks. Trim the edges close so pulling wool through with your stitches isn't as big a deal. I usually don't line them as these buggers are longer than a fat mans belt and that is a lot of hours at the stitching pony. I just burnish the back sides real good with gum tarraganth.

Strap buttons are one quarter inch in the throat. That's the one that attaches to the heel of the neck.

Most acoustics come with a what is called an end pin at the bottom it is three eights of an inch in the throat. If it doesn't have one she will be adding a button like the one at the heel of the neck. Some acoustic guitarist just use a piece of latigo or shoe lace that double through the hole on the strap and tie it behind the nut.

Length is a different ball game. On a custom strap for one person and one guitar you can cut the length to fit them at the longest position they will use, usually standing. Then add another hole to each end a few inches up the strap to adjust for sitting or getting up close and personal with the instrument. I take it she doesn't have a strap that she can give the length from hole to hole for already. If it has an end pin she can tie a cord to it then adjust it till she finds a good fit with it tied behind the nut and use that measurement for the longest she would need while standing. Using that method you can measure like that is the last hole in a belt and adjust from there. Just took a pic and added it showing the buckle end. That one has 12 inches of adjustment. Hope that helps. Feel free to contact me off list. I'm fairly certain that my email is listed in the members section.

Mike

[Mike Phelps]

Forgot some things typical range of adjustments on the one size fits all leather straps run from 33, 38 inches-58,60 inches. Lots of wasted leather huh Gray?

I usually use anywhere for 6-8 oz leather all the way to heavy saddle skirting weights[you have to skieve the ends so you can get it on the strap buttons]. All I use is veg-tan and harness leather. although I've got a couple in the works using some chrome tan stuff in lighter weights.

[Romey]

Man I really like that "vintage " fender basket stamped strap!!!

[Mike Phelps]

Thanks Romey!

It's for sale, presently it resides at Dave's Music in Ada, Oklahoma. After several attempts and some instruction from Verelane @ Siegels Leather in California on how to do a rolled edge and how to properly do basket weave from WC of WC's Leather I got that one together. The shoulder pad has a curve to hug the shoulder achieved by cutting the piece for the bottom shorter than the top piece then spacing the same number of holes in each piece. You can't see it in the pic but it has a one inch thick gold sheep shearling pad glued and saddle stitched.

[Romey]

That there would look good one one of my Telecasters, shoot me a PM. Just dawned on me, I used to date a gal from Ada! I do like rich barrel racers i do, i really do

Edited October 16, 2007 by Romey

[Gray]

excellent, Mike...thanks for the info, and I will be in touch by PM. I'm liking that rolled edge too...don't believe I've seen anything like that before. Nicely done. Basketweave is very crisp, too. Care to share some pointers, or a <cough>photo essay<cough>?

--Phil

[Mike Phelps]

I've still got the tutorial Verlane sent me on doing a rolled edge around here somewhere, stored on CD, locked up in a hard drive on some PC or other and a printed copy. I'll find one on one or the other media and shoot you a copy.

Jeff Mosby, guitar strap maker par excellence, a contributor to this forum and several others has one of the best tutorials on doing basketweaves. It's in digital format and is floating around on the WWW. Don't know if he has it on his site or not, but like all things on the WWW once it's there it NEVER goes away. All a matter of putting the right words into a search engine then sorting through all the results to find that gem. Before I put one together I'll look for his or someone can. It would be a nice addition to this forum.

But basically here is what I do in relation to the one in the photo. Lay out a,one, 60 degree guideline with one of those plastic triangles, usually near the center, so you can work both ways. Now I use a heavy,24oz or 32 oz maul depending on how hard the leather is, place the stamp along the line and give it a light rap with the maul to set it so it won't slip then give it a good solid thump so it will leave a nice sharp, burnished impression. Then set the stamp on the other side of the line with the leg overlapping the other one, set the corner of the stamp so you can feel it in the groove left by the previous stamp, then bring it down so you can see it line up on the guideline, give it a light rap then a solid thump.

Keep working both sides on the line like that.

My early attempts at basket stamping used to wander around like a cow path. But putting a guideline near the center of project and getting those two rows done first, then stamping alternating lines and having the the work glued down to something that won't stretch helped.

The reason I use a heavy maul is so I don't have to swing it. Just raise it with my fore finger and let it fall. I don't change positions just move the work along underneath me so my line of sight and angle of attack never changes. I just get comfortable and let the tools do the work.

[JustWakinUp]

Jeff Mosby Basketweave tutorial

Click Here

[Mike Phelps]

Okay, guys

I found the rolled edge tutorial and uploaded it. Guess I should preview it and see if it's legible.

Hope you find it useful, I know I have.

[Gray]

Thanks for posting that information, guys. Much appreciated. Sara's guitar strap is the next project, thanks to you guys.

--Phil