Question:
Can anyone suggest a good quality, comfortable and unfancy leather strap I can use for my Martin guitar?
Answer:
What I do is just keep stretching the hole until it eventually fits over the jack. I don't like cutting it wider, because I'm relying on that tight fit to help it stay on. Then I just pray that it doesn't let go, if I'm playing the guitar with the strap on, but without a cable plugged in to hold the strap in place. I've thought of using a 90-degree 1/4 plug (just the plug, no cable) as a retainer, but then I'd be eating up battery time when playing unplugged, since the internal preamp uses the jack insert as the on switch. I've also tried unscrewing the cover cap on the endpin jack, and using that as a retainer to hold the strap. But it's too thin to work that way, and it tends to unscrew itself as the strap is moving. Someone needs to solve this problem. I can't believe nobody has figured out a way to do some kind of quick-release fitting for straps on endpin jacks. What we need is a fitting that installs like an endpin jack, with a 1/4 male plug on the inside where you could attach the actual endpin jack. This would accomodate internal preamps like the B-Band or Baggs Double Barrel where the preamp is built onto the jack. On the other end of the fitting, you'd have the normal 1/4 jack, but also a fitting that would mate with a corresponding part attached to the strap. Something like the Dunlop Straplock system. It would have to be some type of cylinder shape to allow a normal 1/4 plug to pass through, but you could have bayonet lugs on the outside to lock the strap fitting onto the jack. I'm about ready to install a secondary endpin on all my guitars, just so I can use a straplock system and not worry about the strap falling off the endpin jack.
Add to favorites