Thread: DIY Guitar Strap Strop

My Tony Miller red latigo strop needed a fabric component and just as I was about to pull the trigger on a beautiful SRD Hard Wool +1, shipping costs and the +$6 for SRD premium nylon polyweb fabric kinda killed the deal for me (sorry Lynn!). So I spent a few hours researching and looking around, almost ordered (may still) some rock hard carbon wool felt from durofelt.com, contemplated ripping the seatbelts out of a buddy's old junker until I read they are likely too slick and smooth....then remembered an old guitar strap laying around my studio that I almost threw in with the Goodwill pile last month, but decided not to....you know, just in case.....well, here is the result:



I adjusted the little area between the black piece and the lower leather portion to fit my hand. The black piece keeps the stropping portion flat and undistorted while the nylon handle portion is gripped. I just removed the strap button connector at the "loop end" of the strap, undid the screw=on fasteners and looped that end through the D ring at the top. Sliced a little hole with scissors for the middle fastener to fit through and put 'er all back together. The guitar can be completely "unlooped" by just pushing the little leather portion through the black plastic holders.

Now the question is what kind of paste/spray to use....I guess technically I have two pieces of fabric, so I could probably do different types on each side....anyway, very cool strop for a total cost of approximately $0! BTW, if anyone would like to do this themselves, just about any music store will give you a crappy nylon strap. They ship with most cheapy guitars, and most places (Guitar Center) just throw them out after they start to pile up in a drawer somewhere. Most mom and pop shops should be able to hook you up too...worst case scenario, brand new cheapies shouldn't cost more than $10.

If I didn't start out with a "pro-made" material strop component as a compliment to my leather I would likely have done the same thing. I've inspected the webbed fabric from commercially made strops and they are virtually identical to cheap guitar straps in most regards and should work just fine. Well done.