Hi,
The magnet won’t grip my iPhone 13. I watched the ‘Increasing Phone Grip’ video but it has no sound and I couldn’t make out what was happening. Can anyone help with how to use the string? It’s just not clear how to use it.
Thanks,
Andrew
String goes under the neck.
Yeah, string under the neck and magnet at the 12th fret(ish) seemed to work best for me! Haha I had to have Troy tell me this because I set it up wrong lol I have an Iphonexs.
I tried it with the string behind the neck, tightened it and locked it with the plastic grip. When the guitar is positioned upright, the phone rotates around a pivot point. Eventually the magnet loses grip and the phone falls on the floor.
I’ve always positioned mine up where the neck meets the body. Once the phone is positioned, squeeze the mating surfaces slightly to secure the phone and the sides to squeeze it to the neck. The strap goes behind the neck, but not with a lot of tension.
My understanding about the string is that it is to stop the assembly falling to the ground if the magnet slips off the guitar neck. The magnet has a strong grip on the neck. It doesn’t grip the phone though, it’s really the grip on the phone that I am needing help with.
You need to make sure you squeeze the sides holding the phone together once the phone is in place. If you’ve done that and it still slips, try cleaning the rubber with some isopropyl alcohol.
That usually helps rubber tack right up.
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Could be the phone case? I know I had some slipping with my Disneyland purchased Millenium Falcon phone case, picked up an Otter - seemed to sit better. I hope that helps man!
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The key detail (IMHO) in the “Increasing Phone Grip” video comes at about the 7 second mark. Also, from about 18s to 20s gives a pretty good look at the result you want prior to pulling the string tight. If you’re going to go “Oliver Stone” on the video, those are the key bits for deciphering my word salad below.
Edit: Anywhere in this reply that I say “your photo above”, I’m referring to the photo in the post you started the thread with, which includes the quote “It’s just not clear how to use it.”
The magnet has an axis along which it grips the neck, and an axis along which it grips the phone. Consider the axis along which the magnet grips the phone. The phone is sandwiched between a “guitar body side” half of the magnet, and a “headstock side” half of the magnet. In your picture above, the magnet is oriented so the small holes that the black nylon string passes through are on the “guitar body side” of the phone sandwich. Troy orients his magnet this way in the video as well.
But there’s an important difference between what your black string is doing and what Troy’s black string in the video is doing.
In your picture above (picture in your thread starting post), you have the black string following a straight line directly between the two holes. Tightening the string when it is like this increases the compression squeezing the sides of the neck, but doesn’t add any compression along the other axis, where we want to squeeze the phone.
At the very beginning of the video, Troy shows how he first loops the string clockwise around the “headstock side” of the magnet so that the string tension will also squeeze the “phone sandwich” tighter. Let’s use your picture above as a guide. To the right of your picture there is a knot in the string. From that knot, the path of string goes left into an arm of the magnet, emerges from that arm, then continues straight across the fingerboard to the opposite hole. In the video, Troy shows that rather than having the string go directly across, instead he first loops it clockwise (as seen from the POV of your picture above) and around the right (as seen from the POV of your picture above) side of the magnet.
That is, when the string emerges from its “origin” hole on the right (still using your photo above for reference), instead of going straight across the fingerboard to the other hole, instead it immediately detours toward the headstock along the “inner” face of the magnet, then turns in a clockwise direction around the “headstock side” of the magnet and runs back toward the guitar body along the “outer” face of the magnet (passing the knot along the way) before turning in a clockwise direction around the “body side” of the magnet and finally running across the fingerboard to the hole on the opposite side.
The result of that loop is that tightening the string will now make both the “neck squeezing axis” and the “phone squeezing axis” tighter. Even if my words haven’t been 100% clear, maybe they will help you see what to look for in Troy’s video below.
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I’ve only heard of this issue one other time. It was a user in Technique Critique. It may relate to some phones being especially slippery. I think the TC user also had an iPhone 13 so it could be that model specifically. Or that model and later models.
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That’s when I came up with the alternative locking strap solution I demonstrate in the video, which the user said was an improvement. Not sure if it completely solved the issue, or just improved it a little.
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If there is indeed an issue with phone slipperyness, a thin case with a grippy surface should completely solve the issue, since that places rubber (or plastic) on rubber. The phone model shouldn’t matter at that point, only the case model. For totally unrelated reasons I use a MagBak magnetic case on an iPhone 11 ( MagBak for iPhone 11 series + 2 MagSticks [Clearance] ) and it stays in the Magnet fine.
I haven’t tried this. It would be interesting if it makes a difference on slippery phones — though it might not if it’s the phone surface that is the issue, not the rubber. Just to be clear I don’t know what the long-term effects of alcohol would be on the TPE rubber we use in the Magnet grips so I would proceed at your own risk if you try this.
- As others have mentioned, definitely mount the Magnet on the neck heel or on the guitar body. The middle of the neck is rounded and thin and the Magnet wasn’t designed for that — it will fall off.
Fair enough, Troy. Even just soap and water can work.
TPE is a huge category. (Used to work for a rubber and plastics distributor).
You’d have to subject it to a lot of isopropyl alcohol, and even then only if it’s a specific type.
But better safe than sorry.
The part I was missing was wrapping the cord around both halves of the lower arm. Once I did that I shot a few videos and the phone didn’t rotate or fall out. The iPhone 13 is very slippery. The phone case was a good idea, I may well try that as extra reassurance as I’m sure it will offer a grippier surface than glass.
Many thanks to everyone who replied.
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