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Have you ever broken your straplock?

R

Radost

Guest
Feb 15, 2015
28
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34
#1
I have a schaller straplock on my warwick thumb 5. The bass is on the heavy side, and tbh, I feellike the straplock might brake during playtime. It just doesent fills me with confidence. The straplocks are installed 100% correctly, if anyone wonders...

Am I just paranoid or do these things happen?
 
#2
Never had one break that was installed after the bass purchase. Only one that every failed on me happened to be on a Warwick, one of the older ones though that was sunk into the wood. Something happened where the pin just stopped clicking in. If I remember correctly Warwick replaced it, no problem.

If you're worried about it coming out of the bass (assuming it's a post 2000 Warwick), I'd suggest taking it out and then putting it back in with a toothpick and some woodglue. That's what I always do for extra insurance. Jam the toothpick in the screw hole, break it off, put some glue in there and on the screw, and and screw it back in. It won't be goin anywhere after that.

And I'm going to join the talkbass grammar police today.
Brake - what you step on in a car to stop it.
Break - when something gets busted, or you take some time off from work.
:)
 
#3
Joe Nerve said:
Never had one break that was installed after the bass purchase. Only one that every failed on me happened to be on a Warwick, one of the older ones though that was sunk into the wood. Something happened where the pin just stopped clicking in. If I remember correctly Warwick replaced it, no problem.

If you're worried about it coming out of the bass (assuming it's a post 2000 Warwick), I'd suggest taking it out and then putting it back in with a toothpick and some woodglue. That's what I always do for extra insurance. Jam the toothpick in the screw hole, break it off, put some glue in there and on the screw, and and screw it back in. It won't be goin anywhere after that.

And I'm going to join the talkbass grammar police today.
Brake - what you step on in a car to stop it.
Break - when something gets busted, or you take some time off from work.
:)
Click to expand...
I had one break in a similar fashion, it didn't drop the bass, but the spring loaded "clicker" inside stopped clicking, it just stopped holding the button. Easy enough to replace. This would have been 10+ years back, I don't even recall what bass it was, might have been the Warwick.
 
#4
Had one fail just like that a couple of weeks ago, I have a lot of em and I have no idea how old they were. The cap that you pull out came unscrewd from the pin it felt loose and I checked closely and found it before it had a chance to cause any trouble, Anyway, now I just give em a good check every night. I never have had one to actually break and drop the guitar, but, I have had em come loose from the strap. I now always use a drop of loctite on the threads of the big nut. It will not come loose unless you want it to.
 
#6
I broke a Schaller strap lock. The doohicky that you pull on to release the lock broke off I'm guessing because I never used to unhook it so it was always taking the full weight of the bass when I sat it on the floor. It actually still worked since the hook/cradle was still intact; it just didn't lock on. That's what I like about the Schaller system, it's redundant.
 
#7
elgecko said:
I broke a Schaller strap lock. The doohicky that you pull on to release the lock broke off I'm guessing because I never used to unhook it so it was always taking the full weight of the bass when I sat it on the floor. It actually still worked since the hook/cradle was still intact; it just didn't lock on. That's what I like about the Schaller system, it's redundant.
Click to expand...
I've tried dunlop and schaller. I like them both ok. but my Rick has schaller buttons installed by the factory, and I sometimes switch straps around on my basses, so it's just makes sense to stick with them. I still have sets of dunlops tucked away somewhere. Has anyone noticed a price increase in schallers? I could have sworn I bought a set maybe two years ago at GC for about 12 bucks. Now they are double that at the store. Like I said in the above post, I was able to find them for 14 bucks online, but that was the cheapest I could find them for.
 
#8
elgecko said:
I broke a Schaller strap lock. The doohicky that you pull on to release the lock broke off I'm guessing because I never used to unhook it so it was always taking the full weight of the bass when I sat it on the floor. It actually still worked since the hook/cradle was still intact; it just didn't lock on. That's what I like about the Schaller system, it's redundant.
Click to expand...

I have seen that too. I also had a Schaller that the spring on the doohicky you pull somehow disintegrated. But as you say the lock still worked it just didn't lock in right. I have had a schaller (pre locktite era) unscrew itself and come loose. But I only have a couple schallers. My main locks are dunlops. while you DO need to make sure they are properly locked before starting to play, I only ever saw one actually fail to lock. Wasn't me but a used bass I bought had Dunlop buttons and they were TOTALLY worn out and would not lock. Fix was easy. I just replaced them with new buttons. Root around online and you can find just the Dunlop buttons so you don't have to buy the entire mechanism.
 
#9
DSCN1279.JPG
On my basses I never remove the straps, so I listened to other TBers with some of the best advice ever. I went to the hardware store and bought large black rubber washers. You put the strap on and then stretch the washer over the strap button. They are tight and hard to put on, so it will never come off unless I take it off. And they are cheap. They replaced my straplocks!!!!
 
#10
I broke one of those dunlop plastic triangular ones trying to put it on my sr1205. the strap buttons are too big. I havn't found any screw in straplocks that will fit in the hole. re-drilling is simply out of the question for me. I guess nothing fits in the hole cause my ibby is tight like a fine woman
 
#11
I recently did a pickup job where the guitar player had a really nice LP with a custom cherry fade over a stunning book match big bubble quilt top. He had Schaller strap locks on but the open end on the strap was pointing DOWN. In other words, the ONLY thing holding the guitar was the two little pins. When I first saw it my stomach did a couple of flipflops as I explained to the guy what a risk he was taking with his locks rigged that way. To make it even more bizarre, he tells me the shop where he bought the guitar installed his strap locks. I got him to let me help him set them up right and after looking at them correctly installed he said he thought he was going to get sick.

Back on topic, no I've never had any of my schaller strap locks fail or break.
 
#13
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#14
I am still using a pair of 20 year old Dunlop Straplocks, just about all the black anodize is worn off but the mechanism still looks and operates fine. I do carry an extra Dunlop equipped strap just incase I were to have a failure.


SLS1103BK-2T.jpg
 
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#15
Joe Nerve said:
Ya know... this thread prompted me to buy these, instead of straplocks for my new Ric...
Click to expand...

Fender also has the washers now and i decided to try them on my little beater jazz. I really like the security they provide but it could be a big PITA if you want to take your strap off the bass when it goes in the case. That's fine for the beater as it lives in gig bag and gets passed around sometimes at jams so having a strap that is hard to remove is a plus in that case.
 

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