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toothpicks in the strap button?

P

playibanez

Apr 3, 2006
918
2
U.S.
www.myspace.com
#1
hey guys.

i recently put strap locks on my jazz.

the screw is kind of loose and gets loose after i play an energetic show.

someone told me to jam broken up toothpicks and woodglue in there and then screw the screw into that.

i didnt want to do it on my jazz so i did it on my crappy ibanez. it seemed to work good

but would you guys suggest it for the jazz? or is this a baddd idea
 
#5
DON'T use toothpicks. Run up to Home Depot get a small wooden dowel that about the size of the hole. Cut it to size and wood glue that in there. Then wait a day for so and screw the strap button in again with a SCREWDRIVER. Much more wood for the screw to grab on to. I wouldn't trust my bass hanging by toothpicks.
 
#7
OptimusPrime said:
DON'T use toothpicks. Run up to Home Depot get a small wooden dowel that about the size of the hole. Cut it to size and wood glue that in there. Then wait a day for so and screw the strap button in again with a SCREWDRIVER. Much more wood for the screw to grab on to. I wouldn't trust my bass hanging by toothpicks.
Click to expand...

While the dowel is probably the best way, toothpicks/glue works just fine in many cases. In fact, I did the toothpick thing last night on my P.
 
#9
OptimusPrime said:
DON'T use toothpicks. Run up to Home Depot get a small wooden dowel that about the size of the hole. Cut it to size and wood glue that in there. Then wait a day for so and screw the strap button in again with a SCREWDRIVER. Much more wood for the screw to grab on to. I wouldn't trust my bass hanging by toothpicks.
Click to expand...
The toothpick/matchstick method is used by just about every pro I've ever dealt with. The problem with the dowel is that they're often hardwoods, and difficult to screw into. I've never had the toothpick method not work for me, and it's done with around the house stuff, so it's cheap and painless.

If you like dowels, by all means. But there's a reason the pros use toothpicks... they work.
 
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#13
yea i broke off about a third of three toothpicks so i guess thats about a whole one. it screwed in pretty snug (on my ibanez, just to see if it worked)

this should hold up to tossing the bass around a good amount right? we like to put on an energetic show so sometimes the bass gets pickedup up over my head and stuff like that .
 
#14
OptimusPrime said:
DON'T use toothpicks. Run up to Home Depot get a small wooden dowel that about the size of the hole. Cut it to size and wood glue that in there. Then wait a day for so and screw the strap button in again with a SCREWDRIVER. Much more wood for the screw to grab on to. I wouldn't trust my bass hanging by toothpicks.
Click to expand...

So, you recommend completely filling the hole and then force the screw in without drilling? Have you ever had to remove a broken screw from a bass? Not my idea of a fun night.

I would recommend to the OP to not follow this advice.

Trusting your bass "hanging by toothpicks" is not at all what is being recommended here.

If you don't intend on re-drilling the hole to the proper size required by whatever screw size you use, I would suggest filling it only partially.
 
#15
Thangfish said:
I would recommend to the OP to not follow this advice.
Click to expand...
I've done it 3 basses and probably 6 guitars and never had a problem getting it in or removing the screw later. But hell, whatever, if you want to use toothpicks, go ahead, I was just suggesting an alternate solution that has worked fine for me on 10 instruments and hundreds more for the guy who told me to do it (worked at Gibson for like 30 years and now does major repair work on his own).
 
#16
All good ideas however to do it right you really should ( takes tons of work be warned )

find drillbit slightly larger than treads to fit hole almost exactly and drill out hole
find wood dowl that will fit in hole very tightly ie hammer it in lightly with wood glue
let dry and drill very very small pilot hole for new screw in center
install strap button

not everyones choise as it depends on how good of a bass you have. If this happened on my Sadowsky I would take the time and effort if it happened on my ride around in the car inexpensive bass I would go for the woodglue and toothpicks. You get what you put into it good luck
 
#18
I've never had to do this with a bass but,....when replacing or relocating a hinge on a door (or it's jamb) I've used golf tees to fill the old hole. Since the golf tee is a hard wood I use a self centering drill bit to make a pilot hole for the new screw. A little wood glue wouldn't hurt but isn't mandatory.
 
#20
I've heard the toothpick fix doesn't work very good or for very long and screws can come out when you least expect it. I've heard many pros refer to this method as a "temporary" fix if your strap lock comes out while you're playing. I replaced my stock strap buttons with Dunlop strap locks and used a piece of wood dowel that matched the wood in my bass body. I whittled a piece to fit the previous screw hole perfectly, glued the piece of wood in the hole with carpenter's wood glue, waited 24 hours for the glue to cure, taped off the finish around the screw hole to protect it, sanded the piece of dowel wood off that was sticking out of the top of the screw hole, drilled a pilot hole into the wood dowel piece to the depth of the strap lock screw (drill bit size = width of the screw shaft), and then screwed my strap lock screw into the pilot hole. A pilot hole in hardwoods is recommended because it ensures you won't split any wood around the screw.
 

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