Tales from.. ..The StrapLab!

[TVvoodoo]

Today I started a tooling job, a custom for a tall fellow. Patrick has a really swell wine red paul he wants so sling on a wide padded custom strap. However, he maintains me he needs up to 67" long, but 63 is his home position! That's extraordinarily long!

and after some discussion... my old Ace of spades series tickled his fancy, with some modifications something like this one... something I made quite a wayws back in 2021 - This new one now would be #9

So, here we go! First some technical stuff. He wanted my Ace of Spades sawtooth to stop before it hit bottom, like the others do... and for me to tool in a much larger version of the stamp as beste I can requiring a bit of computerin'

digitally enlarge it, so I can trace it onto the leather. Then commence with the arbor press - I actually need this 2 ton press to get the impression... hammering alone just won't do it with stamps that have a lot of surface area. and I gotta put a snipe on the press handle besides and put all my weight on it too! It's actually pretty hard work.

Then, trace in and swivel knife in the larger representation...

While it's still sligtly damp... first dye stage. My red dye seems to be getting a bit old, I think it might take a couple of applications. I want it richer yet. It's gonna darken down with antiquing, some black burst effects and clearcoat too. But overall, the plan is to creep up on the right colours and how he wants it.

New in the store today, another Shakey, this one with super faded denim. 45-62" wide and padded.

Happy hump day!

 

[TVvoodoo]

The work on Ace of Spades #9 continues...

Later last night I hit it with red dye again, then neatsfoot oil to drag it a bit deeper into the hide
at this point when it's wet with oil you can get a nice preview of the colour when clearcoated...
but this is still way to bright for where we are headed-

But... it's far easier to darken leather shades than it is to lighten them!
This morning I commenced to shielding all the items I wanted to stay this colour with a resist coating - this means all the tiny little skulls the sawtooth down the middle, and parts of the front carved element. Let that dry for a few hours then hit it all with the darkest antique paste I have

Yechh!

Scrubbed it into all the nooks and crannies, waited twenty beats then wiped it all off.

I let that dry a set for an hour and a half, buffed it out, then started with some black over-dye lightly by hand to bring it even deeper/darker/scarier, and get into the tooled aces a bit better along the sides.

Discussing with Patrick, we have decided I need to darken it down just a tad more, which will happen later tonight after I run some errands. It's all burnished now too, the edges.

today new in the store is another Shakey - the Indigo one. 44-62" wide, long, luxuriously padded.

More to come tomorrow... weekend is coming! And so is my wife... I've been batchin' it since Sunday, but so far I've watched Robocop, The good the bad and the Ugly, and last night Bloodsport. a bunch of movies I've never seen, but it was time to get the off the bucket list LOL.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

That Ace of Spades #9 is going to be the BOMB! Cool shit!!

 

[Frankencat]

That Shakey is looking very nice as well.

 

[TVvoodoo]

A couple of Hipsters entered the Well-Hung Reverb store today...

Hipster #1

Hipster #2

this is old reclaimed leather from my "leather library" salvaged about a dozen years ago, from a ladies skirt. I don't know what guitar it might go on, but it's got all kinds of earthy vintage mojo that I'm sure folks are gonna ask you about!

Went a step darker yet with Ace #9 - still waiting to hear back from Patrick on where we are going with it.

I think I'm going to resist going any darker at this point. But it's pretty dang cool!

 

[TVvoodoo]

L-R Rockstars Danny 'n Bryan of @4 ohm rockin' Mississippi, (maybe slightly retouched

)

Sayeth Bry: "A couple of completely gorgeous straps in the wild: a "Forever Randy" supporting a RR V, and "Braveheart" holding back a Spector bass. Amazing craftsmanship... beautiful work, always get asked about them. Unique designs that'll be cherished, always in our stables and more than likely handed down through generations, plus more to be added! Was finally able to get a couple pics of them in action, thank you Brad"

Woweee!!!!! I always love to see my work at work on stages big or small, even bedroom players and gear caves too! Don't be afraid to send pics!
https://www.facebook.com/4ohmband

 

[TVvoodoo]

Monday, Monday... can't trust that day.

For whatever reason despite that, things seemed to go ok! Got this one all stitched up, and ready for delivery.

Ace of Spades #9 - hard to believe I've already made nine of these, haven't punched one of these out since 2022.

I've made this one various colour combos, black on black, classic burst, green and gold, vintage sunburst...

In this case I think it's gonna match up just fine . Second LONGEST strap I've ever made though.... goes up to 73" ... Pat says he wants it to sit at 67" comfortably. With that amount of extra material, a fair bit of extra work all around, but dang it if it didn't turn kind of impressive in a dark and scary way.

That one off the bench, and new tooling custom job for Brian who was so smitten with the last one I made him, he ordered up another for a flying V. He's looking for "Bouquet #3" to be in a nice light saddle tan with a bit of colour variation. It's also going to be a bit skinnier than I normally like to make, so I won't be able to pad it to quite to my liking, but he says his v is super light so wanted to keep it very low profile.

This is fresh off two hours of stamping - just finished giving it a good yellow base dye, I'll let it sit until tonight and see how that looks before proceeding. This one will continue most of this week, and I have another tooling job starting Wednesday too. Might get it started a bit tomorrow.

Stay tuned, lots of fun this week if you dig this stuff.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

That Ace Of Spades #9 is Kick Axe! Great job, I am sure he will be psyched!!

 

[TVvoodoo]

I've had a slightly busier month than typical, and it's very welcome as the late spring early summer were kind of lean. I attribute this partially to a number of custom sales, and some nice dual pickups. And, all the stuff that I've been making and moving over the past few weeks is now arriving and being assessed, by both customers new, and old.

Paul is a tribal elder in Vegas, by my Reverb records he now owns nine pieces. Even still, I'm glad I'm able to continue to provide Well-Hung "WOW!" factor, even after that many deliveries. He recently picked up a pair of the dragon silk Sum Yung Long Hung Guy slings...

As far as I'm concerned, a maker is only as good as his recent work, and I'm glad I'm still able to please even those who've opened many of my boxes. As a fella who has spent many years conjuring up advertising copy in my previous careers (and will likely pay for it in the afterlife), my listings can admittedly be a somewhat hyperbolic LOL! But it's nice to know the work continues to able to live up all my wordy bullsh!t.

Now Nathan's a dude who just recently found me. Two arrived this week, his second and third after getting another about a month ago. In a recent other feedback he noted he already owned and used straps by many of what all of us would consider the world's major quality builders, and gratefully he has deemed my work superior. Will I argue? No. Damn. Way!

I so welcome when new customers find me, particularly those with some years under their belts able to claim a certain amount of "gear cred," who've had the means and opportunity to field test many products over the years. Almost invariably, I win them over with my work, and they return again and again.

While my bank book might not agree, these words and and loyalty from the Well-Hung Tribe provides confirmation I'm doing something right. If you are a "seeker" I welcome any questions you might have for me, or better yet a trial of my rather unique guitar suspension products. As much as I say "trust Me" it's wise you more weight to what customers are saying. There are over 1,200 feedbacks on my Reverb store you can peruse at your leisure, and many fun/expressive ones too!

Speaking of return customers... Bouquet #2 continues... last night and today I dropped one more coat of yellow, then a session with a mixture labelled "Light Saddle Tan" from my custom mix dye cupboard.

After oiling it with neatsfoot, I'm pretty sure this is what Brian is going for. This afternoon I dyed the edges, and will proceed to burnish the edges tomorrow morning. It's going to darken down and get a bit more contrasty with the clearcoats to come... pending customer approval.

Hope you are running strong this week, I'm making some major changes to my own diet over the past month, and starting to feel some positiivity from it. Sorry not much to report today much of my day was taken up with a denturist appointment with my elderly mama

 

[TVvoodoo]

Not much to show with the "Bouquet" strap. by bedtime I'll have the third coat of clear on it, but it don't look any different, at this point. After coat 4 it's going to start getting a shine on it.

But I did get so start another sunflower for a fellow in Great Britain. His budget was a bit shy of doing a full coverage sunflower strap, but like tattoos, I don't mind doing something a bit smaller -plus it's crazy what it costs to ship anything over there, so I fully understand.

Anyway, we agreed on a price and today was the day to get going ... Same as usual... cut the basic shape, soak it overnight, then first thing get those stitch lines bored in

Trace my saved sunflower pattern onto the damp leather, then carve in the basic lines and shapes with a swivel knife

Sammy's strap is going to have four sunflowers up and down the front, and letters monogrammed on the tail strap. Here we are after about two some extra hours of beveling, stamping, smoothing and some "artistic" decorative cuts. Yeah it looks a bit rough at this stage, it gets better!

I've hit the flowers with yellow dye twice now, (not shown) and also made the leaves and stems green via dye and a brush,
you'll likely see that tomorrow.

 

[TVvoodoo]

More work on Sunflower happened. Here it is as it sits right now.

Still needs four or five clearcoats, after I get the edges all burnished tonight. I gave the customer the option to have the centers dyed jet black,
or leave them the colour of the main body of the strap, a rather rich dark brown, which I think helps tie it all together.

Once it gets some clearcoats, everything is going to deepen with more colour saturation and contrast.

The Ace of Spades strap I recently detailed had a super slippy lining, by customer request... which I rarely do.

After play testing it before shipping to Ontario, it's playing with my head. I'm now wondering if offering almost exclusively
grippy straps is a mistake. I found the experience with a slippy strap a bit weird, but not unpleasant, for the ten minutes
I spent with it. It did feel a bit loose and slightly out-of-control, on a lighter strat-type instrument

If you have thoughts regarding your own personal preferences, I would appreciate anything you could offer on the matter.

 

[Iron1]

If you have thoughts regarding your own personal preferences, I would appreciate anything you could offer on the matter.

For me, it depends on the instrument. My bass is fairly neck heavy, so a grippy strap helps to reduce left arm fatigue.

My guitars are mostly well-balanced and it’s nice to not have the strap pull at my shirt if Im moving around.

Now that Ive not helped one single bit, Im off to wreck the next thread.

 

[GuitarGorilla]

After play testing it before shipping to Ontario, it's playing with my head. I'm now wondering if offering almost exclusively
grippy straps is a mistake. I found the experience with a slippy strap a bit weird, but not unpleasant, for the ten minutes
I spent with it. It did feel a bit loose and slightly out-of-control, on a lighter strat-type instrument

If you have thoughts regarding your own personal preferences, I would appreciate anything you could offer on the matter.

I haven't thought about that much, and from our chats you probably know I'm doing weird stuff with straps compared to the average player. That being said, with my Strandbergs I don't really feel the need to reposition my guitar in a way that would move the strap while playing standing, so grippy is a plus. When I was playing Strats and PRS I remember I would have to shift around more to get into a comfortable position for upper fret access, so a strap that was too grippy might not have been helpful. But, I also had to use a strap while playing seated, and I needed the strap to not slip around to avoid neck dive. Overall I think grippiness is a secondary factor to padding and weight distribution. Though I don't ever recall having a super slippery strap.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Friends, some tough titty here, I've been putting this off. A little bit heartbreaking for me, really.

Quickly approaching changes with regards to trade and NO POLITICS across the US/Canada border have me in a situation where I'm
forced to close off all USA business near the end of next business week.

My USA friends have grown to become significant portion of my business, so this new paradigm is also likely to cause
me to shut down my shop and seek some sort of alternate employment in the near future.

I've researched for hours trying to figure out how to comply with the USMCA agreements, collect NO POLITICS, submit, all that - it seems to me it's about to overwhelm me with paperwork, suck away a large portion of my creative time, and generally price my work out of realistic scale in regards to the competition. So, in effect, the small guy gets crushed, BIG STRAP wins. Thousands of other online craft/boutique businesses are in a similar situation.

I've got no control over this, and it is what it is so I'm resolved to be pragmatic about it and do what I need to do to survive. Near the end of next week, my reverb listings will become suddenly invisible to the USA. As of today, I can no longer accept new USA custom orders, This, for at least a couple months, maybe more until I can figure it all out or something changes. I'm booked at a couple of guitar shows up here in Canada, in both Edmonton and Calgary, which I hope may provide me a bit of a financial cushion. In the meantime, I'll continue building forwards towards those events in late September and early October. Then a long, cold Canadian winter looms.

SO... if you have been watching, waiting, wondering please consider adding a Well-Hung guitar strap, some of my Pro-Pins strap buttons, novelty poker chip switch plates, or a pair of old school straplocks to your stable.

NOW IS THE TIME. DO NOT DELAY.

After Thursday I cannot send goods to the USA at what I would consider reasonable prices,
and I'm not at all sure if I'll be able to do it even at UNreasonable prices.

The link to my Reverb store: Well-Hung Guitar Accessories

Brian B in California will get his custom Bouquet #3, sent tomorrow.

More nice feedbacks came in, but at this point it seems counterproductive to promote what folks say about my goods anymore.

My life's passion, this endeavor I've channeled my entire heart and soul into for so many years may be forced to fade off, but life goes on.
Far too soon to say much with finality here, but I have to be 100% real on the big picture with the business part of things.

I'm still gonna make music, be a bro, all that. It sure does suck though, I'll tell you what!

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Friends, some tough titty here, I've been putting this off. A little bit heartbreaking for me, really.

Quickly approaching changes with regards to trade and NO POLITICS across the US/Canada border have me in a situation where I'm
forced to close off all USA business near the end of next business week.

My USA friends have grown to become significant portion of my business, so this new paradigm is also likely to cause
me to shut down my shop and seek some sort of alternate employment in the near future.

I've researched for hours trying to figure out how to comply with the USMCA agreements, collect NO POLITICS, submit, all that - it seems to me it's about to overwhelm me with paperwork, suck away a large portion of my creative time, and generally price my work out of realistic scale in regards to the competition. So, in effect, the small guy gets crushed, BIG STRAP wins. Thousands of other online craft/boutique businesses are in a similar situation.

I've got no control over this, and it is what it is so I'm resolved to be pragmatic about it and do what I need to do to survive. Near the end of next week, my reverb listings will become suddenly invisible to the USA. As of today, I can no longer accept new USA custom orders, This, for at least a couple months, maybe more until I can figure it all out or something changes. I'm booked at a couple of guitar shows up here in Canada, in both Edmonton and Calgary, which I hope may provide me a bit of a financial cushion. In the meantime, I'll continue building forwards towards those events in late September and early October. Then a long, cold Canadian winter looms.

SO... if you have been watching, waiting, wondering please consider adding a Well-Hung guitar strap, some of my Pro-Pins strap buttons, novelty poker chip switch plates, or a pair of old school straplocks to your stable.

NOW IS THE TIME. DO NOT DELAY.

After Thursday I cannot send goods to the USA at what I would consider reasonable prices,
and I'm not at all sure if I'll be able to do it even at UNreasonable prices.

The link to my Reverb store: Well-Hung Guitar Accessories

Brian B in California will get his custom Bouquet #3, sent tomorrow.

More nice feedbacks came in, but at this point it seems counterproductive to promote what folks say about my goods anymore.

My life's passion, this endeavor I've channeled my entire heart and soul into for so many years may be forced to fade off, but life goes on.
Far too soon to say much with finality here, but I have to be 100% real on the big picture with the business part of things.

I'm still gonna make music, be a bro, all that. It sure does suck though, I'll tell you what!

Holy SHIT Dude, that bites the big one! Unbelievable is all I can say without getting into the politics of it ;~(( You do great work from what I have seen and it is a damn shame that a hand crafted product like yours should EVER be affected by any of this sabre rattling!! I hope you can find a way through this maze.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Thanks for saying Mr. Moondog!

Got some last minute customs completed... now trying to make a run for the border as of this morning.
This red sparkle "cafe" vinyl is headed southward to grace a patriot strat of a TGP'r

Amigos, I spent the whole weekend cleaning up a few customs, and boxing up a small sudden influx of last-minute orders of Well-Hung clientele, (most of the loyal repeat warriors) trying to get one, two or more last grabs in before I fully and completely shut down service to the USA TOMORROW NIGHT.

Sammie in the UK is getting this Sunflower #7 (it's going on an LP), for looks like a honeyburst, or faded teaburst to me... It'll be just fine.
He wanted a very dark brown, and that yellowy orange to pop off it

@GuitarGorilla down in Pasadena is getting this No Prisoners/Mid-Evil/Dark Shadows mashup for his Strandberg.
Not much material there, but it took us a LOT of messaging to figure it out LOL! And kind of an involved build.
Buddy, I hope it works for you!

And... some fun photos came in this morning from Patrick in Ontario... of his Wine red combo completed

Nailed that one pretty good! Kinda looks like glowing hellfire, I tell you whut!

Ok, once again... Last Call for US business - I won't say it again. Moondog chimed in here with his kind words of support, but elsewhere on the F-book page the outpouring of support and general sadness and disgust was really moving for me. I have built a rather large and very appreciative tribe over the years. It's just too bad it may all crumble down like this.

Late TOMORROW 'Mericans won't see my listings on reverb, and even if you contact me outside of reverb, I can't help you. Even if you choose to pay me the extra money for additional 35% levy, I have no ability to submit it to the proper authorities, and if I can't do that, I am barred from sending packages to the USA via Canada post. I will not send as a gift. That's mail fraud and a felony apparently, and I don't look real good in orange. Only way is, if you gotta come drop by the StrapLab in person, we might be able to work something out LOL!

To reiterate, I will not be selling off my tools or my significant leather and fabric stocks - at least not right away. If you wish to purchase the whole business, and my inventory I'll accept offers, travel down and spend an entire month training you to become a kick-ass strapmaker,
Maybe our betters can agree on something that doesn't cripple thousands of small businesses and I'll be able to ship southward again someday. Maybe not. I will continue to post here, keep building for at least the next month though, we have some valued international members here - I like to think maybe this thread has some entertainment value for the content. Ain't no spam if I won't allow you to purchase anything LOL!

 

[GuitarGorilla]

Thanks for saying Mr. Moondog!

Got some last minute customs completed... now trying to make a run for the border as of this morning.
This red sparkle "cafe" vinyl is headed southward to grace a patriot strat of a TGP'r

Amigos, I spent the whole weekend cleaning up a few customs, and boxing up a small sudden influx of last-minute orders of Well-Hung clientele, (most of the loyal repeat warriors) trying to get one, two or more last grabs in before I fully and completely shut down service to the USA TOMORROW NIGHT.

Sammie in the UK is getting this Sunflower #7 (it's going on an LP), for looks like a honeyburst, or faded teaburst to me... It'll be just fine.
He wanted a very dark brown, and that yellowy orange to pop off it

@GuitarGorilla down in Pasadena is getting this No Prisoners/Mid-Evil/Dark Shadows mashup for his Strandberg.
Not much material there, but it took us a LOT of messaging to figure it out LOL! And kind of an involved build.
Buddy, I hope it works for you!

And... some fun photos came in this morning from Patrick in Ontario... of his Wine red combo completed

Nailed that one pretty good! Kinda looks like glowing hellfire, I tell you whut!

Ok, once again... Last Call for US business - I won't say it again. Moondog chimed in here with his kind words of support, but elsewhere on the F-book page the outpouring of support and general sadness and disgust was really moving for me. I have built a rather large and very appreciative tribe over the years. It's just too bad it may all crumble down like this.

Late TOMORROW 'Mericans won't see my listings on reverb, and even if you contact me outside of reverb, I can't help you. Even if you choose to pay me the extra money for additional 35% levy, I have no ability to submit it to the proper authorities, and if I can't do that, I am barred from sending packages to the USA via Canada post. I will not send as a gift. That's mail fraud and a felony apparently, and I don't look real good in orange. Only way is, if you gotta come drop by the StrapLab in person, we might be able to work something out LOL!

To reiterate, I will not be selling off my tools or my significant leather and fabric stocks - at least not right away. If you wish to purchase the whole business, and my inventory I'll accept offers, travel down and spend an entire month training you to become a kick-ass strapmaker,
Maybe our betters can agree on something that doesn't cripple thousands of small businesses and I'll be able to ship southward again someday. Maybe not. I will continue to post here, keep building for at least the next month though, we have some valued international members here - I like to think maybe this thread has some entertainment value for the content. Ain't no spam if I won't allow you to purchase anything LOL!

Good luck dude. I hope you find a way to deal with the regulatory burden. It's sad that small businesses are being crushed while big box types will of course raise their prices to account for the extra paperwork and then keep lumbering along. Anyway, looking forward to the beautiful strap!

 

[Chocol8]

Man this sucks.

 

[TVvoodoo]

OK Well! That was frickin' WILD my brothers. The last couple days has been an absolute whirlwind of action.
I'm bushed, but so very thankful, I'm repeatedly getting overwhelmed with emotion, really.

From all corners, this community, other communities, dudes who I hadn't talked to for years -
a whole bunch of W-H warriors answered the call. The results of the last few days.

Yesterday's mail run"

Then, today's mail run on top of that.

I know when the reverb feedbacks come in, I'm going get all emotional again and again. You guys.

I'm a small-time artisan. Don't sell a whole lot of product: fewer quality items, at a higher price. If you know, you know.
A Well-Hung strap is crafted different, 100% by me, no lines of machines or sewing floors, etc. A one man show.

So, all those packages what went out in the last two days is almost two months' typical sales for me. So, if you're reading this and contributed, please understand how grateful, I am. The mind-blowing customer support will helped buy me another couple months of time to figure things out, and will not be forgotten. Those of you who came in just the past couple/few days, are now on a GOLDEN LIST for future kingly treatments, once this is all worked out. Boy after some research last night, the artisan world is completely topsy-turvy right now, post offices of entire nations are not shipping small goods to one particular country. I learned there are approx 46,000 small businesses in Canada alone, in a similar situation to mine. How many more internationally?

Anyway, I haven't had time to build anything today. I went in to remove USA as a destination on all my listings until I can confidently price my stuff and facilitate a sale.
That was quite a chore.

You know, it's hilarious, I had people throwing all kinds of ideas at me.

* is duty and NO POLITICS payable on used goods? Just call it second-hand stuff
* one generous stateside Warrior offered up his garage as a USA shipping depot, and his wife to pack and clerk outgoing shipments for me - HOW AMAZING IS THAT!

I'm exploring other ideas, will have the time to do that. I will also keep building and showing, I've got a couple of guitar shows coming up. Lots of stuff I build hangs in the store for months, and cool stuff too! I'm confident maybe his can all be worked out perhaps hopefully before the holiday season, New American guitarists may once again join the Well-Hung Warrior Tribe with the legion of others.

But man, right now? Sheer chaos out there!

 

[Chocol8]

I am hopeful sanity returns soon enough.