Tales from.. ..The StrapLab!

[TVvoodoo]

Sometimes the occasion arises when you need something just a little bit "extra" to push you over the edge. If you don't happen to have an amplifier that dials up to eleven, there is this new Star Power series strap in the Well-Hung reverb store called "Wild Bling" that might suffice.

Under the hot stage lights, or summer festival sunlight they're gonna light up real good, make you and your audience smile.

Four of these babies fresh in the store, two of 'em a bit wider and longer made for shape throwin', two on the left a bit thinner and shorter for the ladies, or the height-challenged perhaps. Dunno if this is tiger, or a zebra pattern, but either way the only thing they do proclaim is... "Jump in... we're headed to Party-Town, and I'm drivin!"

Built to my regular strong tour-duty standard, reinforced black leather, non-slip lining, and padding inside that make you think twice about taking off your guitar.

Very limited edition due to found materials I'll likely never see again. Four only.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Way back in 2010, I ordered my last guitar strap from an online seller. It was a 3" wide black croc patterned leather strap advertised at 54" long. That was my sweet spot, and I couldn't seem to find anything longer. When it arrived, it wasn't even 52" long end-to-end, never mind 54" hole-to-hole (that's how I measure my straps). Otherwise is was pretty ok, but I'd just had it. One of two reasons why I began cooking up ideas on how to learn to sew my own straps.

New in the store today is "Snake Charmer" - something I haven't made since 2021. The last time I did these it was in a "Dirty Honey" python, but over Friday, part of the weekend and some of today I put together four new ones in "Graphite' python.

I wasn't too keen on these floating pad style straps for many years until a few people started bugging me to make them one. I just wasn't convinced. If I was going to make these, I needed them to feel "not sketchy" and to NOT have the pad float all up and down where it wasn't supposed to be, making the wearer look like a total dork. So, with some thinking, and redesigning, I did manage to beat back those issues.

Once I made something I felt I could trust, I did actually learn to enjoy this style. There's something to be said about the extra feeling of slingin' freedom this style provides. Actually very similar style to the original guitar strap design Bobby Lee invented back in the late 40's, easy to adjust, low profile.

I've repaired an old version of this strap by ACE, also seen modern version abominations the guitar biggies dare you to pin your guitar on. The smaller boutique companies do it WAY better. I put the skinny strap THROUGH the pad for a cleaner look, more friction too, so it don't slide so much. Plus extra Well-Hung padding in the pad, 3" wide with rolled edges. It's funny how some call theirs a "pad" when they looks to me as hardly there. Good STURDY western buckle hardware.

One last thing... I add what I call "Paddle" ends where your pins go - Just a bit more leather and thicker too. Feels way more trusty. Is it actually better? I dunno. But feeling confident is important.

These are LONG. Of the four I made, the minimum adjustment on one is 53" That's further out than many store straps will go at MAX adjustment. The longest of the four maxes out at 70 inches. So, if you are 6 feet tall or more and like to hang kind of low, these will get you there.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Words back from Jolly old England...

Also from Calgary, Alberta... a new Well-Hung warrior has joined the tribe. He reveals he's brand new to the whole guitar game, shows us his starting-out rig. WHATT?????

"Ruby arrived today. She is so sweet man. I slung it right away, feels amazing. Full transparency I'm a bedroom player this is my first strap ever. I guess I started at the top of the pile. What can I say I like nice things made by craftsmen/tradesmen. I'll give you an update in a few months, and be sure to leave a review. Great communication, overall great experience dealing with you." -A. Longmore

I mean, when I think about the rig I started with then look at this... gotta say I'm a tad jelly. The old Hondo bolter LP knockoff I was wielding was janky as heck. I'm sure he's probably got some swank modeler with ALL THE AMPS, CABS AND PEDALS to go with this too, starter pack PFFFT! Oh to be fourteen again and have today's guitar blessings.

New in the shop today, the absolute final re-issue of one of my top ten sexiest straps (my opinion).
"Lunch With Lucifer" in silky rich red and black damask.

I go on about this particular material in the Reverb listing. Sooo swavay, baby! Again I went long, ultra-padded, non-slip, up to 62" with the final pair of these. To top it all off, I added black croc on the ends, nose and tail, so this pair is the most badass of the total half-dozen made.

Ruby Tuesday!

 

[TVvoodoo]

Three new No Prisoners series straps in the Well-Hung reverb store today... a real variety pack too!

"Vigilante" is a thick Sheridan embossed black leather belt on 3" wide pigskin suede with a subtle paisley pattern in it. Really nice effect with the shiny on matte with contrasting stitching. Padded, goes nice and long.

"Trigger Happy" is 3.5" wide ultra-padded, on tan garment leather. On it, a found item belt festooned with antique brass grommets - I added some F-tweed to peek through. Goes ULTRA long, up to 65" and is in my Class Act form factor, with a chonky matching brass horseshoe buckle. This strap is VERY beefy. Might look silly on a slim bony dude

Finally "King Farquad" is some auto vinyl with a python pattern that I dyed to black and purple. I added a faux leather ladies belt that used to be brown, I added some brass grommets and such, and dyed that black too - then stitched it to the vinyl. Lightly padded, maxes out at 55" - very subtle.
If you feel your purple guitar might lean a bit girly (no judging), there is the option to badass it up with a No Prisoners rig like this. This strap reads as mostly black from more than ten feet away.

And yes, I know that King Farquad, was actually never a King. Triggered your autocorrect, didn't I? That's all I got today. Thinking about what to do tomorrow.

 

[Chocol8]

Ooooh, I like Trigger Happy! Any chance you would send it south of the border?

 

[TVvoodoo]

Some new stuff in the store, but first a word from Jarl... my first package ever sent to Norway!

Jarl was so nice, polite and thoughtful with questions, correspondence and customer feedback, I'm wondering where all that supposed viking fierceness went? Are Norwegians no longer brutally womanizing, burning down villages and tearing great chunks of roasted meat off giant bones? Perhaps the legendary barbaric energy is now being channeled towards X-country skiing, speed skating and pumpin' oil.

In the shop, not shown yet, another No Prisoners, in tweedy fabric and leather, "El Jugador"
as with the hundreds of other Well-Hung No Prisoners strap creations, this is 1/1 never to be repeated.

I hinted at some new 1969 straps coming a few weeks ago, finally got after those, made a pair of each.
Sort of a softer lilac purple, a steel/lake placid-ish blue, and a buttery yellow

These were fun, might do it again. All of the above are now loitering in the W-H reverb store, waiting for adoption.

 

[TVvoodoo]

What a freakin shlitzshow. Today I spent hours trying to sign up for this Zonos platform that bills me for US duty and tariffs, then provides me a code enabling me to ship a package to the USA.

This is the second screen in to register, hardly better than the first. Use of this platform is mandatory to ship stuff via Canada Post since late August. The bugs are out-of-control. It's the same on Brave, Firefox and Chrome. Then there's a cheerfully helpful AI chatbot there with fake concern, asking you to be patient, keep trying other fruitless things and contact support, (which apparently never gets back to you, according to what I'm reading in online forums). Entered my info gotta be thirty times!

ARGGHHHH!

I feel it's been made intentionally frucked-up to dissuade international vendors from registering. I know some have, but anyone who's managed to seems to hate everything about it. I'm willing to give it a try. But they have been operating like this for six months?? Like this, welcoming new users? And they want my credit card info? What a sad joke. Who's druggy son vibe-coded this complete disaster, and why has it not been fixed five months ago?

Sorry to be caught venting. My day has ended up mostly a total waste, so all you get is more of the same! They do look pretty sweet though.

Bound and determined to get my store open to the USA in early April, but I can't ship nothing 'til I get that stupid app working.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

On a positive note, I have received my first ever Well Hung goodies! A friend in Canada gifted me a guitar strap from this EXCELLENT vendor, and I ended up with two of them!! Apparently there was a mishap in the building of the first one where some dye escaped the intended areas and created some blotches (see below M and above W in the crescent moons on the lower and lower right strap pix) that were unacceptable to this professional strapper!!! Here are the two wonderful pieces which I tried today for the first time and they are ultra comfy ;~))

And here is the better of the two straps with it's intended instrument (my PRS JA-15):

Included with the two straps was a Well Hung banner and several Well Hung stickers! I also received a very nice letter explaining the process and the love of the builds that this man infuses in each and every strap ;~))

So glad to be of the tribe! Well Hung for the win!!

 

[Chocol8]

Congrats! Brad's straps are works of art AND the best damn guitar straps you will ever sling over your shoulder.

Even though I currently own more of his straps than guitars, I am acting as a guinea pig for cross border shipping to add to the collection. If USA shipping opens back up, get yourself a Well-Hung strap for your favorite axe. You won't be disappointed.

 

[TVvoodoo]

On a positive note, I have received my first ever Well Hung goodies! A friend in Canada gifted me a guitar strap from this EXCELLENT vendor, and I ended up with two of them!! ...tried today for the first time and they are ultra comfy ;~

Included with the two straps was a Well Hung banner and several Well Hung stickers! I also received a very nice letter explaining the process and the love of the builds that this man infuses in each and every strap ;~))
So glad to be of the tribe! Well Hung for the win!!

Moondog-baby so glad it worked out!!! ... seems like a reasonably decent match to me and will augment both your personal branding and your music-making! You got a real-deal friend there and that purchase was extremely timely due to how business has gone for me lately so, thank you both!

Congrats! Brad's straps are works of art AND the best damn guitar straps you will ever sling over your shoulder.

Even though I currently own more of his straps than guitars, I am acting as a guinea pig for cross border shipping to add to the collection. If USA shipping opens back up, get yourself a Well-Hung strap for your favorite axe. You won't be disappointed.

Yes, Choco... late yesterday I managed a breakthrough in the installation/registration of the app, finally able to (I think?) link it with my Canada Post business account. Did a few test calcs and the tariff/duty costs came up a bit less than I was expecting,... still significant but encouraging.

My next tasks will be to do a test shipment to see if there are any back-end cost surprises, plus I have to go through my 180 listings, calculating the extra costs (tariff/duty +Zonos app fees) and tack 'em onto each USA shipping price... as well as paste a note into each listing description detailing why USA shipping prices seem higher than normal. Then, I can re-set the store to allow US biz once again.

It's funny how I as user will describe the product to the app then AI figures out what the duty is on each item (you can even send a photo). Then, the app shows you the duty cost with a percentage of surety in its calculation... like "85%" sure, and warn there may be customs surprises. I get the magic key specific key code for that item, and ship it. Canada Post then triggers Zonos to bill me for the anticipated duty cost directly on my CC.

We'll have to try it and see. You have bravely volunteered as our intrepid test pilot, first W-H goods shipped across since six months of guitar strap darkness fell upon the land of the free and the home of the brave!

 

[Chocol8]

I am happy to be the test case! Hope this all works out for you (and me too!)