Iluak Strap Buttons

Anyone used the Iluak strap buttons? If so, thoughts?
I'm thinking of getting a pair of the ivoroid ones with the abalone dots. I'm hoping that they look okay on a concert uke, size-wise. I'm also hoping that the ivory color looks okay. My tuners are silver, so I was thinking I should go with silver buttons, but I saw these and like the looks. My uke has abalone inlay, so at least that part would match.

I like them. I recommend getting the install kit and do a test install on a scrap piece of wood before you drill into your uke. It should not take a great amount of force to screw in the pin - fingers only - so you may have to experiment to find the right size drill bit for the pilot hole and the depth of your tap. Also you may have to do the tap a little at a time - back out half a turn, go in 3/4 turn, that kind of thing. Take it slow, follow the instructions, and don't force anything and you'll do fine.

I have put them on two tenor ukes. My Kinnard and my Pereira. They look great.

As Jim says, go slowly and be careful. If your instrument has a high gloss finish, you may want to put a piece of low-tack painter's tape so that you don't chip the clear finish. For sure get the tap to make screwing in the strap pin easier with a tapped hole. I think it was $5. Finally, put a little bar soap in the threads to make it even easier to screw in.

The directions are clear and succinct. If you are going to install two pins, the two-pin set is cheaper than buying two separate pins. I always buy directly from the company rather than Amazon. They ship very quickly and are easy to work with if you have a question. I haven't had any problems, so I don't know what their customer service is like.

I have used them before and they are lovely. In fact, I just treated myself to new Pono (small scale steel string tenor guitar) and it had no strap buttons. It’s rosewood back and sides, so I went with the dark wood ones with mop dots and they match the wood and other bling on the Pono nicely.

I am not particularly handy and found it easy to do. I took my time and triple checked myself on the upper button placement (saw the recent thread about someone accidentally putting theirs into the top side of the heel…I like the bottom). The lower button is a piece of cake. The upper one can get confusing and you can accidentally lose your orientation as you are turning your instrument around on the bench. I used tape to mark where they were going and protect the wood. Before drilling my pilot hole I also marked my drill bit with tape so I knew exactly how far in I wanted to go. I just held the bit up to the screw with the leather washer on and matched the depth and wrapped a bit of masking tape tightly around to act as a stop. I did the same with the little tapping tool and then hand screwed in the buttons (which already have the screw in them. Piece of cake and they look beautiful.

Where do you get them? Or any kind of nicer buttons? TIA.

mgsondance said:

Where do you get them? Or any kind of nicer buttons? TIA.

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Just google the name and go right to the company’s site. I haven’t seen any ones prettier than these. The company was also very nice to work with. I previously was getting buttons for an old mahogany Favilla and they specifically looked for a pair that matched nicely (they can vary a bit in color, so they selected ones based on a pix i sent).

mgsondance said:

Where do you get them? Or any kind of nicer buttons? TIA.

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https://iluak.com/

Waverly makes some high end uke strap buttons, but instead of an inlay or an embedded mounting screw, a gold Phillips head screw passes through the pin and into the ukulele. With an exposed screw head counter sunk into the pin. Almost as nice as the Iluak pins and about the same price. I think they are available at StewMac and Amazon.com.

Kenn2018 said:

Waverly makes some high end uke strap buttons, but instead of an inlay or an embedded mounting screw, a gold Phillips head screw passes through the pin and into the ukulele. With an exposed screw head counter sunk into the pin. Almost as nice as the Iluak pins and about the same price. I think they are available at StewMac and Amazon.com.

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Waverly with gold or chrome screws... ebony, ivoroid or snakewood bodies available on Amazon from Stewmac. They're cheaper by the half dozen, too. I know this, because I just bought 6 of them (ebony/chrome) this morning for $41.53 versus $15 apiece.

I like the traditional, tapered plug type ebony end pins for the body, but you need a tapered reamer to install them correctly.... luckily, I have the reamers.

It might seem tempting to go with cheaper strap buttons but in reading reviews, I find that they're often plagued with lousy screws. Having the head of a screw sheer off while I'm trying to install a strap button in the neck heel of one of my babies is not an experience I want to go through.