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Do you use straplocks???

#41
The issue some speak of here about schaller straplock to me is humorous at best! If you buy a decent strap for your hard earned investment and not the el-cheapo stuff the maybe just maybe your schallers will work, besides the washer on schaller strap locks is an inch (yeah I measured it) wide! If your strap comes of of that you are LONG OVERDUE for a new strap! Every strap I have put locks on Iv'e had to press the open hole part flatter so I can pass the locking part through the hole and put the washer on, then the nut. Tighten the nut as to sqeeze the leather strap. I have never had any of 15 straps fail on me, and like said here you alway's point the open part of the "C" upward at both ends of the strap. I cannot speak for Dunlop locks because I don't use them, I find them funny looking (little flying saucers). Just remember people it's not which is better or the baddest, it's that it's a small price to pay for what could possibly happen!
I'm another one that will not bring a bass home without straplocks and it's own strap!

P.S. while I was in high school I once saw my buddies EB3L give way and head to the floor! He was between songs and scatching his head when it happened! He picked up the bass and the only thing between the body and the neck was the strings, The neck had broken off completely :bawl:
 
#43
Lockout said:
Are there any alternatives to installing Schaller or Dunlop straplocks on a bass? I've heard stories of them widening out the strap button hole and coming loose, and I don't really want that to happen to my basses, even if it is an easy fix.

Does anyone know of any straplocks or large strapbuttons that don't cause the strap to stick out farther than it would on a normal strap button?
Click to expand...
The plastic Dunlop straploks mentioned earlier use the original guitar fixings and the original strap holes, but look better (and are more secure?) than a rubber washer. If you put the strap on, and leave it on, they are the cheapest way to go.
The Planet waves locking strap has a rubber back, to stop it chaffing the bass by the fixing point, but the rest of the assembly is hard plastic, and clatters against your bass, especially at the bridge end of the body.
If you take the strap off to put the bass in its case, you are in a different ball game, and I cannot comment on that.
 
#44
The Golden Boy said:
That being said, I know of people that regularly play out with $150,000 instruments that use rubber washers off Grolsch bottles.
Click to expand...

I use this on my bass.. and if i had a Ritter Bass, i'd still use this rubbers. Cause the strap just can't come loose with them, there's no way(except you'r playing in a place htaT's so hot it makes the rubber melt.
 
#46
Ever since I've seen the damage one of my friends' Epiphone guitar sustained when it slipped off the strap and smashed into the ground Head-first, It scared the crap out of me and I dont have a single instrument without straplocks now... even if it aint that great...

the headstock snapped clean off that epi LP...
* shivers *

I mainly use the shaller type locks, though I also have some dunlop rounds... instead of wrapping around the round thingy, it goes into it, and releases 2 little side spike thingies so it wont come out...
Cant complain on either of those... they both work well.
 
#47
I used to but found they arent very necessary for me. The schallers I used would twist the strap button right out of the bass and eventually the holes became stripped out. Filling the holes with toothpicks would make it tight for about 30 minutes. If you have large enough strap buttons they arent necessary IMO unless you are doing vic wooten style flinging it around your shoulder....
 
#48
I've dropped my Ric some three times now and it has chips in the finish to prove it. The pegs on a Ric are ridiciously small. I just now finally got some schaller straplocks. I was glad that they fit the ridiciously small pegs on the Ric without having to take off the original pegs and put in new ones. I'm going to be buying another Sting Ray here soon and those have much larger pegs. Eh, I hate to drill and undrill crap out of my bass. :( Anyways, I'll probably get some loc-tite or whatever, but I haven't had problems yet.

I've seen guys use duck tape. Usually some punk rock act. :rollno:
 
#49
I use the Dunlops, although some of my basses don't have them. I need to make the time to get them all done. My Nordstrand is first on the list, I just hate to do the 'matchsticks and glue' thing on such a nice bass.

Most of the differences between the two have been discussed, but the thing that gets me about the Schaller is that the darned button is so tiny. I have a couple of basses with those buttons(and don't have the other part) and a strap will barely stay on them.

I like the Dunlop dual design, because if I forget my strap, I can borrow one from my guitarist and the button is large enough to keep the strap on securely. My two basses with the Schaller buttons have been dropped a few times. And nobody around here seems to sell the Schaller assemblies, just the Dunlops.
 
#51
I have just removed a set of recessed dunlop straplocs from my recently aquired s/h Warwick Corvette.

As commented by others,

a) they are loose enough to clatter, which bugs me, and
b) if they fail, you aren't going to see it coming, which bugs me.

I have fitted a pair of Dunlop plastic ones instead. I can see what is going on, and I can remove them if I need to.

If anyone in the UK wants the straplocks, for the cost of the postage, pm me and we will sort it out. I will give first refusal to the person who sends the email closest to 21:00 on Friday evening.
 
#54
Used to use Schallers, never had them fail. However, I do have a problem with the screws they were using, which are uniformly smaller (in both diameter and length) than most strap pin screws. Toothpicks and glue abound. I had more issues with the screw than the locking nut. Ultimately, it was the screw issue that led me to my alternative. Well, that and the $15.

That $15 is for sissies (yes, I did just call all of you sissies).

Try 15 cents.

A washer, and a screw, and I don't even have to change out the original pin. I just take the pin out to the garage, find a screw longer than the old one, that fits through the pin, and then a washer with a hole smaller than the head of the screw. Stack, and boom. Just like in the picture. I'd do it to a $3000 bass.

And, unlike, say, Schallers, Dunlops, or any other straplock out there, only strap failure itself will make your bass take a dive, and frankly, strap failure beats straplock every time. I can't remove the strap without a screwdriver, but I always put the strap on to play the bass, why bother taking it off at all? I'm not swapping out straps all willy nilly, so it's never an issue. Always have a strap (physically cannot forget it if I bring the bass). And, if I broke a strap during a set, I'd spend just as much time getting a new strap into the Schaller or Dunlop strap assembly as I would unscrewing the pin and putting the new strap on.

Indestructibility, people. It's the future; and the future is cheap.
 
#55
Brendan said:
A washer, and a screw.
Click to expand...


That's all I use. I found some washers that are big enough to not let my strap come off and use them.

All I do is take the strap buttons off. Take the original screw with the button, slip the washer up to the button, put the screw (w/ the button and washer) through the strap hole, then screw into the hole in your bass. That method has never failed me.
 
#57
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lockout
Are there any alternatives to installing Schaller or Dunlop straplocks on a bass?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan
A washer, and a screw


+7 (each of my instruments has its own leather strap...just the right length...PERMANENTLY attached with a long wood screw and washer)
 
#58
I have been playing electric bass since 1979 or 1980 and never had a problem. A year ago I started using a new main bass and strap and the strap would pop off the bridge end of my bass once every show. I put Schaller strap locks on my basses and never had another problem.
 
#59
this is what i have done. as a vegan i dont use leather, so i took some seatbelt type material (actually its heavy canvass but similiar) and put a small hole in it. then i folded it over for extra thickness and put another hole in it to match the spot where the other one lines up. then i took some crazy glue and used it around the holes' edges to stop fraying. i bought some big black washers from the hardware store and screwed the strap into place using the washers to hold it on. now you might be thinking, "but how do you remove the strap?" to remove the strap i installed a 2.5 inch heavy duty parachute clip on each end. now i just click the clip to take it off or put it on. works very well and is very solid.
 
#60
All of my basses have the Dunlop flush-mounts. They either came as OE, or I installed them myself as aftermarket. I love 'em. Very secure and just so damn clean looking on the bass!

I agree with a previous post that stated as long you give the ball bearing mechanism just a drop of very light gauge oil every so often, they are pretty much fail-safe. I do it more often than a year, but that's prolly not necessary.
 

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