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Balanced Guitar Strap

A strap to help balance your 12 string
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Here's the problem: My 12 string guitar is "head heavy" when on a strap. It's ok for seated playing, but it's really a job to keep it from tipping while standing.

The solution: A strap with a weighted end for the bottom of the guitar. It shouldn't need to be a very heavy weight, probably just a few ounces is all that would be necessary. The weight would be adjustable, adding or subtracting ounces until you find the right balance.

Noexit, Jul 27 2006

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       I dread to think how much weight I'd need to keep my 6 & 12-string double-neck balanced. This is one of the reasons that my triple-neck (currently still at the design stage) will have quite a heavy body.
To address your problem, I think you'd be better off attaching the strap near the nut rather than at the neck heel (which is where I assume it's attached now). Also, I find that a strap with a suede or sheepskin back helps to stop it slipping, as does simply holding the neck.
angel, Jul 27 2006
  

       I'll bite. What on earth would you use 3 necks for?   

       I am curious about the strap attachement you mention. Is it ok to loop the strap connection around the high end of the neck? (near the tuning pins) I have it this way now on my acoustic/electric, but I have been worried for some time that I might actually be damaging the neck in doing this. Not that I'm any good anymore. Don't use it & you lose it, I guess. I forget how to play even the crap I wrote.
Zimmy, Jul 28 2006
  

       My triple-neck will be a six-string, a twelve-string and a bass (although Chris Squire's has a standard bass neck, a fretless bass neck and a six-string). I just happen to have the necks lying around from some junker guitars I've accumulated, and the body will be built from an old mahogany sideboard.
Electric guitars generally attach the strap at the neck heel, but many acoustics don't have a pin there; the end of the strap is tied (with a bootlace-type affair) around the head between the nut and the tuners. I prefer not to do this, and on one of my 12-string guitars I fixed a pin on the heel. (I've just recently bought another 12-string and am as yet unsure whether to do likewise.)
angel, Jul 28 2006
  

       Wow. The bass was the only thing I could think of, but I didn't think that would be it. Is this for (to probably misquote John Lee Hooker) the cats are all around here in the studio and we just jammin'. With the pots on and the gas on high?   

       Do you think it would warp the neck of an acoustic to keep the strap attached at the nut (leather shoestring I think). I have had a pin nearer the base on other guitars, but I never liked how it felt holding them that way.
Zimmy, Jul 28 2006
  

       Guitar necks are much more robust than a lot of people think. After all, there's about 350lb of string tension on there, and most have a steel bar inside to adjust for relief. Look at any old photographs of folk singers and you'll probably see the strap attached thus. In fact (I've just done this) try a Gooooogle search for "Bob Dylan" and check the images.
My triple will really be just for the hell of it, although in my previous band I could have used it (as could the bass player, although he uses a different tuning for his bass so he'd need one of his own). When (huh!) I finally assemble another prog band...
angel, Jul 28 2006
  

       //search for "Bob Dylan"//   

       heh heh. Robert Zimmerman > Bob Dylan > my login name Zimmy. (I probably have most of his albums). I tried to teach myself guitar & poetry & then discovered him. I am a dust spec in comparison.   

       thanks, [angel], for reassuring me that I am not screwing up my last guitar.
Zimmy, Jul 28 2006
  

       Yeah, it was only after I posted that bit that I looked at your profile page and saw the Bobby pastiche. Reminded me that I might play that one at my next pub session. My wife is a big fan (she converted me, although I used to do a few of his songs in my folk club period) and also has most of his albums, plus the 30th anniversary concert on VHS. You'll note that, from his earliest days, Dylan played Martins and Gibsons almost exclusively and did them little harm.
angel, Jul 28 2006
  

       I actually have a Gibson, though it's Epiphone, not Les Paul. At one point I would wander in the stores when buying strings or pics & look longingly at the Martins.   

       So, [Noexit] would be better doing the strap up on the nut, huh? I can't fathom what elastic would do. Would it tend to stick to your shoulder more than a regular strap?
Zimmy, Jul 28 2006
  

       I'm not one to show off <pause> but I have three Epiphones: my double-neck, an SG and a Les Paul 7-string; also a 1989 Nashville-made Gibson Les Paul Custom.
[Noexit]'s method would work better on a 'normal' guitar with a light body than on a 'normal' guitar with a heavy neck, as it involves adding weight; in his place, I'd go with one of my suggestions. I'm not sure how [Ian T] would deploy the elastic.
angel, Jul 28 2006
  
      
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