My Cool New Strap

the.ronin

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I just had pickups installed on a couple of my tenors so I thought I'd try out some straps since I had the jack input there anyway. I didn't really find any that I liked - just a simple 1 inch thick brownish or tan strap maybe made out of hemp for some hippie factor. So I tried making it myself.

I got this "ukulele strap kit" from etsy (check the great video on the page on how to make it) and also this hemp webbing that measures 1" wide and 4 feet long. I picked up cool looking shoe lace from the nearby grocery store and voila ...

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(I will be posting about my experience with the MiSi pickup and the too narrow of a slot on the Kamaka HF3 bridge in a separate post.)

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I used just a quarter of a single shoe lace. To secure the ends, I dabbed some gorilla glue inside some black heat shrink and took a heat gun to it.

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wth only 4 images max???? ok to be continued then ...
 
... continued

I really like how it turned out. And theres all sorts of different shoelace patterns out there too.

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aloohhhaa lol :D

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Looks nice! Is it comfortable?
 
Very nice! Now trim those strings ends! :shaka:

and, you might want to move that shoe lace up between the tuners so you can play G7...
 
Looks great! I'm too lazy to do all that work myself. :p I have straps by Sherrins on etsy and the UkeLeash. But yours is one of a kind. :cool:
 
Thanks guys. I personally think it's comfortable - nothing like the Reunion Blues straps I have on my guitars of course but it's so light anyway. The hemp is also a soft material.

The laces definitely touch my hand when I go in for a G7 and even more so E7 but it's not that bad. As for the string ends, I'm still not sure what I like with this uke. Right now those are Oasis brights with Fremont Soloist low G. I don't think they are a good combo but I just wanted a low G on there. I had gone all Fremonts and while they sound great on my KoAloha tenor, they don't do it for me on this HF3. Anyway like I said, I'm still up in the air on strings so I haven't cut them down.
 
Looks great! I'm too lazy to do all that work myself. :p I have straps by Sherrins on etsy and the UkeLeash. But yours is one of a kind. :cool:

Thank you! And I must say, sewing SUCKS. Oh man, it is truly a form of medieval torture depending on the context. And I cannot sew a straight line if my life depended on it which is why I avoided any closeups of the sewing lol.
 
Thanks guys. Good call on the thimble, Camsuke. My $1 sewing kit came with one but I'm not sure where it went. Luckily, we have calluses that come in handy too lol.

Nice! I like the color of the strap; it's hard to find a strap color that actually complements the wood hues of ukes.
That's it!! I wasn't sure why of all the dozens and dozens of straps I looked at nothing really clicked with me. Thinking of it now, they all look like shrunken down versions of guitar straps! Yes, the uke needs, nay, deserves its own strap.

As for the dogs. Meh ... they'll probably go after my gigbag first LOL!!

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Thanks but obviously the gigbag is not at all practical. It's just a cheapie "Eddy Finn" (whoever that is) gigbag. Ask me what a pain it was to sew all those patches LOL!! Luckily the patches are hard to find so my fingers had time to heal in between sewing. But yea not practical but I'm ok with that I take my ukes to the beach and my moms house that's about it lol. I do have an Ameritage for the tenors I bust out on black tie events lol.

Jagadeesh, thanks - in photoshop, filter, mask, unsharpen mask ... voila instant pro photo lol.
 
The first thing I noticed was the metal D on each end of your strap. You have a nylon adjuster, I wonder why whoever made the kit used metal since the black nylon ones are available in 1/2 -- 3/4 -- and 1 inch and only cost $0.75 for all three.... $0.50, if you want to do it with only two pieces of hardware.. I have 18 different colours of poly webbing that I use for making straps in one inch wide as well as 3/4 in black or white. A 52" piece fits most people. Since it comes to me in 100 foot rolls, if someone needs a piece big enough to have gone around someone the size of IZ, cutting it to length would be no problem. The other way is for children or a person of small stature needing a smaller size piece. Leather ends? How wide by how long? What shape do you want for the unsewn ends? How big of a hole,, and how long of a slit? What colour? If you are going to stitch them by hand, tell me how many stitches do you want across the strap, and I can pre-punch holes with my sewing machine needle with no thread so you are not trying to pierce the leather as you attach them to the fabric. Want an instruction sheet? I can put one together and include it in the mailing of the stuff, or add it to my website. Want an all leather adjustable strap, or just a single fixed length? Can do. Do you want one with an 1800 0r 3500 pound load rating before they will break? It's Mule Tape !It is used in various construction fields for pulling things through pipes or tubing. It is white nylon with the load rating printed on it. I dyed one in a strong cup of black coffee. It came out a very pretty tan colour.

I am an EddyFinn dealer and have the hemp bags. They have an open enough weave that they can snag easily, and they are not very well padded if you are going to be tossing or dropping whatever you have in it. They do look nice and feel good, too.
 
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I liked this strap so much I made another one for my other tenor lol. I went a dark brown to compliment the darker shade on this one lol ...

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I also went with darker shoe laces. I've got so much spare shoe lace now lol.

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Hey it matches the rosewood inlay rosette LOL.

Money shots incoming ...

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Thanks guys. Good call on the thimble, Camsuke. My $1 sewing kit came with one but I'm not sure where it went. Luckily, we have calluses that come in handy too lol.


That's it!! I wasn't sure why of all the dozens and dozens of straps I looked at nothing really clicked with me. Thinking of it now, they all look like shrunken down versions of guitar straps! Yes, the uke needs, nay, deserves its own strap.

As for the dogs. Meh ... they'll probably go after my gigbag first LOL!!

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Best gig bag I've ever seen!
 
Thank you! But like CraftedCow was saying, these offer ZERO impact protection. I'm ok with that though I just wanted what basically amounts to a sock or sleeve or cover. I had a surf patch laying around so I sewed it in then decided to hunt down other patches and this is where I'm at so far. The other side only has 2 patches lol. (These patches are harder to find than I thought!) I do have a proper case (Ameritage) that I use for my tenors.

Also I've had a chance to really use these straps now. They are comfortable but theres so little weight being put on them, I think even if I used twine, it would still be comfortable. This is the first time I've had straps on my ukes and I'm finding it so cool that I can just let go of it to change the channel on the TV lol. I normally like to swing my guitars around to my back and carry it around upside down like that on my back and I can do that with this too theres enougn slack.
 
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If this was a product I'd buy this, although I'd have to buy a strap button for my uke first..

You mean with all the patches? Oh no man thats 99% of the fun is finding the patches and sewing them on yourself. Thats one of the reasons I went for this hemp gigbag I knew it would much easier to sew patches on this one. Also the patches are about who you are personally so its kinda cool.

Oh if you mean the straps, totally easy to make it bro. If I can do it, your dog in your sig pic can do it LOL.
 
You mean with all the patches? Oh no man thats 99% of the fun is finding the patches and sewing them on yourself. Thats one of the reasons I went for this hemp gigbag I knew it would much easier to sew patches on this one. Also the patches are about who you are personally so its kinda cool.

Oh if you mean the straps, totally easy to make it bro. If I can do it, your dog in your sig pic can do it LOL.

The straps, yeah haha. It's really tempting. I might try to make one soon enough :rolleyes:
 
I'd mention I don't think its cheaper than just buying one but I still think its worth it. Just the sewing part is kind of a pain lol. Definitely watch the video on the etsy page for the "strap kit" because at least for me, looping it around the buckle was confusing at first. Post pics if you do it! That would be cool if this because a DIY strap thread LOL.
 
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