How To: Put On A Guitar Strap

If you just picked up a new guitar, you might have also picked up a guitar strap to complement it. If you\’re researching to find out how to connect the strap on your guitar, read on for a few helpful tips. An important thing to know is the type of components your guitar features to attach the strap.

Most guitars have 2 metal fasteners called strap buttons. There\’s ordinarily one button on top of the guitar body and an additional 1 on the base. These are what you slide the guitar strap around to fix it to the guitar. Now you know what those little metal things are and have seen them on your guitar, get your guitar strap. There\’s two ends of the strap. A particular end is intended to hang in front of your shoulder and secure to the button on top, and the other falls behind you and affixes to the bottom button. Assuming you have a leather guitar strap, the chances are it includes two components and one of them is smaller sized and feeds between the larger piece to enable length adjustment. The hole, generally known as a buttonhole, in the main part is designed to connect to the top strap button. With a nylon or polyester strap, the front is the side opposite from the plastic slide adjustment.

Note, many acoustic guitars do not make use of a button on top of the body, and simply include a single button on bottom. Here you may still use a regular guitar strap, however, you need an additional piece of string to secure the strap on the guitar. Some companies throw in leather strings with their straps for this function. If your strap didn\’t include this, you can buy leather strings from a local craft store. To attach the strap, you will need to loop the string beneath the strings within the head and wrap it back around. Try to place the strand near the nut towards the top of the fretboard avoiding the guitar strings so it will not affect the sound.

Almost all good quality guitar straps use leather for the strap ends, even if the rest of the strap is made from a different material. Make sure to look for a quality leather that will not stretch with the weight of the guitar which could allow it slip off. Fear not if the leather ends are a little challenging to slide around the strap buttons. This will ensure a secure connection, and you will have one fewer aspect to be worried about with your gear. If you need to make sure your strap won\’t slip off while playing guitar, I like to recommend looking into some sort of strap security device, referred to as strap locks.

Strap locks are generally little devices that affix to the strap and guitar in more permanent way than simply putting around a button. I prefer the Dunlop Straplok system, however the Schaller Strap Locks are another good option.

Want to find out more about guitar straps, then check out this page for more on custom and leather guitar straps.

How To: Put On A Guitar Strap