Tales from.. ..The StrapLab!

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

My neighbor and I were chatting while I was up there we both agreed a pro would do it better, but then there's that whole "turn in the man card" issue

There are some things where I would not consider it to be turning in your man card! This is one of them. About 6 years ago, we paid $15k to have 6 trees removed from behind the house. We then got the State Gov't to take out another 8 trees on their park property behind the house that could kill us if they fell. I had no problem letting the pro's take down these 80-100 ft. trees ;~)) It was a blast watching them swinging on ropes from tree to tree, but I ain't gettin' up there!!! Call me man card turned in if that is criteria to have a man card (being able to do all complex/dangerous jobs)!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Well, i got my rigging all set up, from two sides so I could basically lean over the edge and feel pretty secure.
But.. it just didn't feel right. I dunno what... Spidey sense was kicking in. Plus the wife was busily shoring up my life
insurance.

So, I chickened out. Listen to that little voice, it's seldom wrong.

There have been arborists in town with a cherry picker for a week now, doing work for the village... I inquired with the
admin to see if they'd do some cash money work, and apparently they are open to that. So, I now wait until tuesday
to see if they can take out the biggest part. In the end I got about 1/2 of it, but the risk was not worth the reward
to try for the rest with my limited tools, bravery and capabilities. I'll always second guess myself, but at least I will
be around to do that. At least it's not rubbing against my house, I took so much weight off it. but a big storm rolls
through again, could be trouble.

That trunk piece sticking up is still 11 inches across, a lot of weight maybe 1,000 pounds. It comes down, busts rafters etc.. then I'm on
the hook for big $$ major inconvenience. I'll wait a few days. Just kind of weird being on my back deck looking
at that imposing monster hanging above.

Spend the last three hours bucking up and piling what I did manage to cut off. Work enough for today, showertime!
It's a hot one today. Saw chain is loose and dull, that means I done something!

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Well, i got my rigging all set up, from two sides so I could basically lean over the edge and feel pretty secure.
But.. it just didn't feel right. I dunno what... Spidey sense was kicking in. Plus the wife was busily shoring up my life
insurance.

So, I chickened out. Listen to that little voice, it's seldom wrong.

There have been arborists in town with a cherry picker for a week now, doing work for the village... I inquired with the
admin to see if they'd do some cash money work, and apparently they are open to that. So, I now wait until tuesday
to see if they can take out the biggest part. In the end I got about 1/2 of it, but the risk was not worth the reward
to try for the rest with my limited tools, bravery and capabilities. I'll always second guess myself, but at least I will
be around to do that. At least it's not rubbing against my house, I took so much weight off it. but a big storm rolls
through again, could be trouble.

That trunk piece sticking up is still 11 inches across, a lot of weight maybe 1,000 pounds. It comes down, busts rafters etc.. then I'm on
the hook for big $$ major inconvenience. I'll wait a few days. Just kind of weird being on my back deck looking
at that imposing monster hanging above.

Spend the last three hours bucking up and piling what I did manage to cut off. Work enough for today, showertime!
It's a hot one today. Saw chain is loose and dull, that means I done something!

V cool that there are some folk about town to help take care of that! I think you are making the right decision. I would not worry too much about another storm before Tuesday because even if one did come, with so much of the wind catching part of the tree gone, I would be surprised if anything shy of a hurricane budged it ;~))

Congrats on the survival! And you have lost no memberships as a result of your decision to step back IMO!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

managed to hire the tree guys for cash money to come help me out, and boy did they ever! They. they also took a bunch of other threatening trees down, but I opted for the cheap way, meaning no chipper. As a result my yard looks like a tornado hit it with piles of trunks, branches and limbs everywhere, while I slowly pick away at it. Probably five or six loads of stuff to take to the landfill this weekend. The funnest part was when
the bucket guy disturbed a beehive in one of the trees he wasn't doing anything with, we watched him stretch that boom way way up high as it would go, to escape for a few minutes, 'til they settled down. This was from my neighbors' yard. Gotta marvel at the skills the guy had, chainsawing one-handed while cradling four foot sections with his other arm so he could drop it safely. Mad respect.

But here's some strap work, which is probably why you came here!

My worst nightmare... the Jack Dupp "Light 'em Up" strap for a forum brother came back for repairs. Only lasted on e gig! LOL
The cheap-ass switch, and my soldering was suspect so I swapped out a better switch and it's now back to life. I used a borrowed computer power switch slightly modded. Also mounted the switch outside the lining so if he needs to repair it again, he'll be able to do it now.

Also put two lengths of coat-hanger wire in the lower body to minimize bendyness.
Ain't no way he's rolling it up to stash it in a case. Thank you sir, for mo' patience.

Here's some new things went into the store this morning...
Warthog. I will only sell this to a guy who rates himself A Ten. Get it? I'm here probably next week too.

Mom-in-law brought with her a cool diamond-studded fashion belt from the thrift store.
It is now a guitar strap. So. Damn. Blingtastic!

This one is kind of nightmare fuel. "Swamp Thing" - I don't know if it will ever match any guitar out there, but it's very cool. Avocado green, black and poo brown, who knew that would work?.

And, Desert Danger, the last a piece of that hand painted rattler stuff I was trying to make maybe a couple of years ago.

All 3" wide, comfort padded, longer than most, and in the Reverb store!

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Congrats on the tree survival/removal! I think you opted for the right choice to haul to dump yourself ;~)) Nice straps!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Tooling one of my original designs this afternoon, I'm about half done, a few more hours into it I'll be ready to dye.
I call this one "Sunflowers" and I think this is the fifth one I've done? Though, this one I opted to try straight stems rather than viney curves,
because that's what sunflowers actually have.

Printed out a pattern on acetate, transferred onto the leather, then carved in with the swivel knife

This next is the beveling process, making the petals, stems and leaves jump out out of the background by pushing down the background around all the element edges.

If you ask me, this is the more tedious part of leather tooling. I just put the tunes on and give 'er, till my arms near fall off, rest, and repeat.

The best leather workers leave no sign of tooling marks. I am by far not the best!

Here you will see I have smoothed the edges down a fair bit with a modeling tool and erased many of those marks . Also added some "seeds" with the seeder stamps. By the time decorative cuts are made, the background texture is all hammered in, it dyed and antiqued you'll have to look pretty close to see the error marks It's a insiders' kind of thing. But now you know!

This one is going to be different dye job than the rest I've made, more sort of monochrome brown. Still have about 3 hours left of tooling tomorrow, because I really want the texture details to stand out bigtime because of the dye job the customer asked for. Stay tuned!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Work on "Sunflower" has continued, quite a few hours in fact!
Last we left off, everything was mostly beveled out, now some light modeling on
the leaves and petals, and stamping in a mottled background... both of these
to add interest and more texture

Then I go over it again with the swivel knife and hack and slash in some decorative cuts,

again for much the same reason. These will hold antiquing paste when it's rubbed on.
But first, a double application of a custom dye mix, a generic warm medium light brown.

Normally I'd let that dry, then oil the leather to pull the dye deeper. but I held off this time because it dried quite a bit lighter than I was expecting. So after it dried, I went straight to antiquing, choosing a step darker goop than what I was planning to use.

I wanted the seed heads to be darker for texture, so left it sit on those places for about four times as long as the rest of the pieces. I use the toothbrush to rub it into all the cuts, nooks and crannies.

Then I rub it all off. My instinct was right, this is much closer to the brown I was looking for.

I rubbed a bit harder on the petals to get a bit lighter colour on the flowers. This customer wanted more monochrome
but I think I'm going to do the same process again but dye the flowers yellow and resist coat, them so they really
pop sometime in the next few weeks for something to take to a guitar show I'll be vending at.

Let that dry for a few hours, then oiled it to help sink that colour a bit deeper as the oil absorbs in.
I let is sit there for a good fifteen minutes, and it pretty much all gets sucked right up.

Then I begin to buff it out prior to clear coating, and it really begins to come to life. A day of clear-coating tonight/ tomorrow, then assemble on Friday, pad and stitch.

Also in the background working on a custom order for a Bluey-purple Genocide, Fella wasn't sure if he wanted silver highlights on the blue or not, so I offered to make both. I'll put the other up for general sale in the store that he doesn't choose.

Busy shop this week

 

[TVvoodoo]

New in the Reverb store today are a set of four "Sweet Carolines" from my 1969 series, with the Capri orange ribbon.

Last time I was in the big smoke, I found this interesting upholstery vinyl that actually has a layer of padding
already glued to the backside of it, effectively padding the whole kit and kaboodle! Figured I'd give it a try.

So on this short run I can say FOUR layers of padding instead of the normal two, though it don't make that much
a difference, you can feel it in the edges I think.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Something happened a little over a month ago, spurred me to start on a new set of a Well-Hung Original... so I've had these "Old Glory" straps on and off the bench for a while now. Recently a TGP member showed how he had his special vintage battleship deckwood telecaster build featured in a pictorial in Premier Guitar, he had asked me for an Old glory to match with it. I was grateful to be involved and got me a bit of publicity over it myself in the text and photo mentions! I used to subscribe to that mag not that many year ago. Pretty cool!

Anyway... I finally finished four new "Old Glorys" today, one in the regular, and three in what call the "Patriot" rebel forces version which seems to sell off just a little faster, and honestly? I think they are a little "cooler". Black or blue denim.

These possibly my most comfortable strap. And being made of denim, just get more comfy and familiar, and a nice homey fade-in the more you use them. I paint the denim with stencils prior to building, then assemble with good leather on the nose and tail sections and luxurious padding in the shoulder. As a bonus.. these also feature my own "Pass-thru" design on the back end with a Conway buckle to adjust - you will not find a more easy and quick-to-adjust strap. I'm serious. These will filter into the store over the next while, I think a previous "Rebel forces" patriot version still remains from the last run, probably 2020.

Also started a custom today for Steve, who is looking for a "Dark Shadows" style strap for his rather sexy Jackson

Purple is a hard colour. I've said it before. it can go magenta/pink, it can go blue. It can look different in different colour temperatures, and taking photos can also get wierd. I'm going to try this, a piece of snake emboss I dyed for him today with a bit of a dark black burst on it. Better to err deeper purple than girly purple, but he is demanding as close a match as I can get.

I was hoping to start another tooled sunflower today, but the dude was late with measurements so I have to start that one now tomorrow.

 

[TVvoodoo]

OK, we got the Dark Shadows "Deep Purple" custom done today. I believe I got the dye colour spot on, but in photos, it seems my purple want's to lean a bit magenta/red. I had to really crank the light on to bring out any colour, it's a very deep purple.

As I alluded to before, I was tooling most of the morning, and got sunflower number 6 under yellow dye. This one is going to be much different than the last one, colour scheme wise anyway. I have to let this dye stage sit overnight before I can move forward because of that.

Tomorrow I will show you how to resist.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Last we left off, we let the yellow dye sit overnight then dye-painted the inner heads, leaves and stems with dark brown, and a quick green I mixed up. Now we resist! This is a term in leatherwork when you want to keep something from NOT soaking up the next dye stage, to keeping it the colour you want. It's never perfect in my experience but works pretty good. The antiquing really helps pull things together, and blend colours nice.

So, you paint this very expensive "resist" coating over it. I don't buy the expensive stuff. I just use plain old acrylic lacquer, and it works just fine. Sometimes I'll use another product/technique that's like a "half" resist, like i did with this one on the green leaves and stems. It's a cool effect... retains SOME of the colour, but also blends with the new.

BAM! I didn't use a second dye this time, I went straight to antique. I've been dying to try this new Mahogany antique, that works very well as a stain also... so here we went, all browny-red goopy 'n grimy, working it into all the cracks and cuts. Waiting a few beats, actually many beats in this case, then wiping it off.

Then I oil it, buff it all out, stain the edges black and burnish. It's poppin', baby! Here I've already got a couple of topcoats of clear on it, it's starting to gloss - this strap is supposed to pull double duty with these two, and I think it will do just fine! going to go with a contrasting creme stitch I think.

One more topcoat tonight, hope to finish it tomorrow

 

[TVvoodoo]

Here's a couple finished shots of that one, now headed to Ontario, matched the old Washbum pretty nice

Got an order for TEN! pairs of Well-Hung StrapMasters, or the Old School Leather straplocks which is kind of not normal. The same fella picked up ten set's not that long ago... makes me wonder if he's reselling LOL!
You'll probably only recognize these if you have a bit of grey showing like I do, a bit different from the original design, more robust most have told me, and improved.

Nice loose feel, totally silent, and they'll add about 4-5 inches to your strap chain, so you can get off that very last loop on your strap! This is important!

Anyway, he said he likes them so much he wants another ten sets to give to his guitar friends as gifts. That is such a baller move, I figured I couldn't just use scrap leather bits (which is still plenty strong) for this order like I normally do for one or two pairs. So, I cut off some fresh vegtan pieces and dyed it in three browns and some in black this morning.

Will oil 'em in a bit, then probably start the clearcoat later in the afternoon if it's ready. Deluxe order for a deluxe customer!

Speaking of deluxe... faithful Well-Hung warriors know I habitually add fun cool swag into my orders for dudes who don't try to grind me on price, (usually it's just advertising promo for me ). Gotta say I'm pretty jacked-up about my new rehearsal space banner now in production

It's going to replace the "Octane" banner I've been sending out for a couple years, but have run out of.
This one features some of my favourite rock 'n roll lyrics, and I keep wondering how many people are gonna spend ten minutes trying to solve the challenge of matching all the lines with the performers and tracks.
Some are pretty easy. Some might require some extra brainpower or deep diggin

I have several customers who've asked me for extra, to take it to their fave local live music venues/watering holes and the joints often actually pin 'em up just for the "fun" value. This time I did a bit of humming 'n hawing over including a few rather "salty" phrases, but that's rock 'n roll for ya! The Well-Hung "Lyric Banner" should be available in orders in about a eight to ten days time.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

You are right, the strap looks exceptional on that Washburn! I think you should display your straps on guitars whenever possible as I think it in general looks better than on the manequins ;~)) Just an opinion though, your biz!!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

I used to take more with guitars but it takes more time to light, or haul stuff outside, more chances for dings and damage...
Then you get the people who can't visualize the strap on their black tele, because I chose a gold strat for the photo. Then I keep buying more guitars to match.
Great observation tho

 

[FuzzyAce]

Then I keep buying more guitars to match.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Yes! I feel already overwhelmed with storage and maintenance of 16 ... I'd like to pare down to a dozen

 

[TVvoodoo]

There's this fella named Justin Wierenga out of Michigan who is a crazy hard working musician. I see him on my instagram feed all the time, he's doing solo gigs, duos, bandwork, sideman work, studio work, and he's a multi-instrumentalist too. Blues, rock, jazz, country... He does it all at a high level.

Total gear hound, never misses a pawnshop in every place he travel and boy does he pick up some really cool vintage flavoured stuff. He mentioned to me the other day he's "addicted" to my straps, he has a couple of them... and sent pics of five or six guitars, said he'd like a few new straps for electric work but just a little shorter than my regular. He's cool with a "Surprise Him" sort of deal.

That's so much fun for both of us!

He's a helluva nice fellow, obviously - he's busy and works with so many people, and seldom fails to mention Well-Hung in is social media post gear list. So we worked out a price, and I kind of went a bit over in value for the fellow, 'cause he's a real clan warrior.

Anyway, I put together a set of three customs, a vanity strap, a Burntwood, and a brand now "Carpetbagger" tapestry strap, with hot peppers all over it. Fun!

Gonna be fun for him to open this package only knowing one strap is a cowboy style with his name on it.

 

[TVvoodoo]

here's a couple new ones heading to the store soon... "Caliente" is basically the Well-Hung Justin Wierenga signature model strap - made of thick tapestry fabric in my Carpetbagger theme. Why would I name a strap over a relative unknown musician? Because I can, and he deserves it!

Like I mentioned in the note in Justin's package heading his way, it's the kind of strap after you duck under it, forces your game upward.
Really, who would dare phone it in wearing a spicy number like this?

Forum brother Paul in Colorado sent in a nice pic... Surf Diamonds and Thunderstruck on two of his prizes