If you love your uke, drill a hole in it!

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ConspiracyUkeist

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I feel a strap is essential on a uke, if you're going to be playing it anywhere other than in your nice living room, with a carpeted floor, etc so falls aren't catastrophic.

So, I priced those little buttons at Guitar Center and they wanted $9 for two of them! Uhh, no thanks! I dug around here and turns out I had one, I thought I did. So, I did a little starter hole with the tip of a pocket knife blade, then used a 1/8 drill bit in a holder and carefully hand-drilled the hole. It came out great!

(If I hadn't found that button I was pretty sure I had, I was considering going downtown and getting a pair of antique dice one of the antique store ladies just brought out, and using one of those with a hole drilled through it, and some sort of little stand-off at the base to make a cool button.)

Now I have to make a strap, but the nice thing is that ukes are so light, just about anything will work fine. I'll brag about my strap once I've made it.

My new Cordoba is relatively cheap to replace if it goes crashing to the cement, but still NOT something I want to have happen.
 
I just read this to my circa 1940 Kamaka pineapple made of monkey pod with inlay on the neck, which is sitting in my lap as I type, and it is shaking in fear and won't stop!;)
 
Or maybe if you don't want to drill your uke you can use this
31TH-I4mMyL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
How does it work? I mean, where on the uke do you wrap it around? Because I want to knit one...
 
You're very brave, I'd be far too terrified to drill holes in my babies :)

I tend to sit down when I'm playing, or use one of the traditional uke straps where the hook grips the bottom edge of the soundhole.
I'm pretty absent-minded though, so I've learned to attach an extra piece of ribbon that's tied around the headstock :D
 
I use straps on my Tenors and not on my sopranos.
Its all a matter of choice I suppose.Perfect straps on
my Tenors have been made from the shoulder straps
of two old handbags of my wifes,which were destined
for throwing away in any case! The beauty of these is
that they are about one inch wide,very thin and very
light,and are leather or at least good mock-leather!
They look good,and owing to the light weight of a ukulele,
after 47 years of guitar playing,you hardly know you have
them on,and your instrument is safe from accidents!
 
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I like holding my soprano and banjo uke without a strap. It just feels natural. When I get a baritone, I believe I'll get a pickup end-pin strap.
 
Gosh, I thought this was gonna be about installing pickups. Well, in any case, a pickup on the end often doubles as a strap pin, and many guitar straps will have the laces on one end to tie around the headstock, so no more drilling necessary. I use a uke thong myself, was thinking about getting one and then I saw Jake Shimabukuro perform his set with one - effective advertising. He moves around a lot and has expensive equipment. Figured if it worked for him...
 
Lori has a nice strap that only requires connection at the head - nothing drilled, bolted on, screwed in or otherwise added, changed or mutilated. Ukeleash. Look it up...
 
I've been toying with the idea of putting a strap button on a few of my tenors. I don't know if I'd start the hole with a pocket knife though... :p

Right now I use the strap that clips to the sound hole, works well enough. Mandolin straps are a nice length if you have the button though, and some of them look real purdy.
 
Glad things worked out okay for you. I will not be drilling holes in any of my ukes. I also use a classical guitar type strap when needed.
 
The strap button rocks my world. Really.

How funny - you just started the thread that I was going to start today.

I've resisted getting a strap button on my Kamaka concert ukes FOREVER, because, dang it, I figured if they were meant to have a hole in their bottoms, Fred Kamaka would send them out from the factory that way.

This past weekend I got brave and just decided to do it. Took one of them to the shop, brought along a friend for moral support, entrusted one of the dudes there to do the drilling, watched the whole time while my heart pounded rapidly and I broke out into sweat. When he finished, I found a nice little mando strap, put that on, and - it was life-altering. Really!!!

Loved it so much I brought my other Kamaka concert in the next day for the same treatment :)

I have no idea why I resisted the idea for so long, outside of pure stubbornness. What I do know is that crazy 4-finger multi-fret jazz chord changes that I've been fighting with are no longer fighting back.
 
ConspiracyUkeist said:
I feel a strap is essential on a uke, if you're going to be playing it anywhere other than in your nice living room, with a carpeted floor, etc so falls aren't catastrophic.

So, I priced those little buttons at Guitar Center and they wanted $9 for two of them! Uhh, no thanks! I dug around here and turns out I had one, I thought I did. So, I did a little starter hole with the tip of a pocket knife blade, then used a 1/8 drill bit in a holder and carefully hand-drilled the hole. It came out great!

(If I hadn't found that button I was pretty sure I had, I was considering going downtown and getting a pair of antique dice one of the antique store ladies just brought out, and using one of those with a hole drilled through it, and some sort of little stand-off at the base to make a cool button.)

Now I have to make a strap, but the nice thing is that ukes are so light, just about anything will work fine. I'll brag about my strap once I've made it.

My new Cordoba is relatively cheap to replace if it goes crashing to the cement, but still NOT something I want to have happen.
Click to expand...

Great Point, but since 2001 when I bought my first ukulele, I have never dropped one and I have never used a strap.
I no longer make fun of guys that use a strap but I have no desire to put a strap on any of my ukes. Just not for me.
 
EricStetson said:
Gosh, I thought this was gonna be about installing pickups. Well, in any case, a pickup on the end often doubles as a strap pin, and many guitar straps will have the laces on one end to tie around the headstock, so no more drilling necessary. I use a uke thong myself, was thinking about getting one and then I saw Jake Shimabukuro perform his set with one - effective advertising. He moves around a lot and has expensive equipment. Figured if it worked for him...
Click to expand...
When i saw Jake in ATL, he didn't use a strap. I wonder what made him start using one? Endorsement? Or laziness? or just b/c?
 
I guess I'd wince too at the thought of putting a hole in a Kamaka! But, I'd probably consider getting a nice little button made of koa and GLUE it on, it could always be removed later by a restorer.

I was going to just get a mando strap, but there weren't any at Guitar Center I liked.

A uke is so light, it doesn't take much of a strap to secure it.

Nothing wrong with starting a hole with a pocket knife blade, the idea is to get it dead-on center, drill bits tend to walk around.
 
I really want to put a strap button on my ukulele, but I don't think I trust myself to do it. If i messed up I could never forgive myself, so it looks like I'm going to go for one of the sound hole hooks :p
 
ConspiracyUkeist said:
I'd probably consider getting a nice little button made of koa and GLUE it on, it could always be removed later by a restorer.
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, I think I have seen koa strap buttons somewhere on the Web. I went with... nickel, I think? To match the metal on the tuning pegs. It looks just fine, but koa would be very pretty :)
 
I put a strap button on my Kala — drilled the hole with a hand drill, no problem. I have a Uke Crazy strap I bought from MGM on it. I like it.

The Dolphin doesn't have anything solid to screw a button into so I haven't tried putting a strap on it. Never considered the zip tie mount approach! I don't think I'd do that to most ukes but a Dolphin? Maybe. But in fact I have drilled a hole in the Dolphin too — for a piezo pickup.

The Flea is yet another matter. The flat bottom's a design feature, you can't put a strap button there! I've seen the suggestions for alternatives and maybe I'll try one someday, but for now, it too is strapless.
 
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