Strap advice for a christmas present

Gear
#1

Hello all,

I’ve played guitar for what feels like forever now but only recently started playing while standing (with a strap) and even now that I’m playing with a strap, I’m just using a cheap nylon strap and think it’s fine. My dad on the other hand has been playing for something like 43 years and has always played standing with a strap. He’s also pretty close to finishing a 12 string electric archtop guitar that he’s been putting together for months now. The body and neck are made from a gorgeous walnut and I thought it would be nice to get him a matching (or maybe contrasting) strap for Christmas especially since the strap he plays with on his 6 string locks to the guitar and I don’t think can be put on a guitar without the strap locks.

So I was wondering if I could get some help picking out a new strap for him. I’m thinking brown leather or leather/suede (or the right color to contrast that? white? beige?). Idk if any exist but if there are straps that can lock but can also work like a regular strap without the locks on the guitar, that would be awesome. I realize that this is a pretty simple request but I really know nothing about straps so I would just be reading a ton of different reviews on a ton of different straps and I trust you all to give me more valuable input than I would get from product reviews.

Edit: yellow/gold might be the right color choice since his nut, bridge, and machine heads are brass.

#2

Levy’s makes very nice leather straps. If he doesn’t have strap locks on the archtop, you can get pretty much any strap. If he wants to put on strap locks in the future, he would just install the lock on the strap and the guitar.

#3

Well that makes that part easy haha. I guess my only other concern would be the mechanism that adjusts the length of the strap. I did have a look at Levy’s strap the other day before I’d really decided to go this route and a handful of reviews on the one I was looking at were saying that this mechanism wasn’t all that great.

I can only guess how it works but I’m thinking this is probably one of the better strap adjustment mechanisms https://www.levysleathers.com/product/guitar-strap-mss17-brg/ If that’s right, is it also comfortable or is there another option that works well but is more comfortable?

#4

Most leather straps use this type of adjustment. Once you have it adjusted, it’s never going to accidentally change length or position. It does take more time to set it up compared to a nylon or woven strap with a buckle. I guess that’s a matter of preference.

1 Like
#5

My suggestion is that if at all possible, you should find out what adjustment mechanism he already prefers (based on his current strap). If you can’t, the classic “ladderback” style (as pictured in @SomeDudeOnline’s post) is a good go-to.

As others have mentioned, virtually all straps made today will come with simple universal slots for hooking over a strap button, but he can add whatever type of strap lock device he prefers after the fact.

There is a huge range of price and quality with leather straps. Below are 3 highly regarded vendors of leather straps. If you shop around and look at descriptions for straps in the range you intend to spend, looking at these three will give you a fair representation of what you can get for a given price, and in the case of these companies, you will get what you pay for. Note that El Dorado Straps is a smaller company doing a lot of “made in USA” stuff, which means you probably pay more from them. Depending on what you know about your dad, maybe something from a smaller USA company will have added appeal to him, or maybe not. El Dorado has some really beautiful straps with hand-tooled decoration, but naturally you end up paying more for those.



https://eldoradostraps.com
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#6

I’ve never gotten on with that “ladderback” adjustment style. Personal taste, ut I just don’t like it.

This is my current favorite strap in production:

High quality garment quality leather, but with the adjustment mechanisms of a traditional nylon or cotton strap. For me its a really good compromise.

For guitars that tend to neck dive, there’s a similar strap with a sueded understide:

This was my go to for years, and I still have one of these on most of my guitars, but they switched a few years ago to a cosmetic design with a natural-leather Levy’s patch at the end, and I don’t like the look nearly as much. It’s silly, but…