One of the most important but often overlooked pieces of music equipment is the guitar strap. Here at Custom-Guitar-Straps.net you’re sure to find the perfect guitar strap for your needs.

Physically developing skill and dexterity comes down to one thing – being comfortable while you play.
The right Guitar Strap makes all the difference.

Nothing could be more simple than a guitar strap: a strip of fabric or other material with a leather or synthetic piece on each end, and a hole in each of these end pieces that make it possible to attach the guitar strap to the guitar. But there’s a lot more to it than that, and the Custom Guitar Straps website is here to help you choose the best strap. That’s right, totally unbiased info for Guitar players everywhere.

But why is customizing a guitar strap to each individual guitarist so important?

If you haven’t been playing long, or you’ve just been too busy to notice, you might have overlooked a few things.

1. Some electric guitars are heavy! No, not music style heavy, but actual heavy, as in how much they weigh.
2. Some gigs are long, and at times, exhausting.
3. Some days you notice one of your shoulders seems a little sore, but you haven’t got time to dwell on it, so you put it out of your mind.
4. You wear your guitar really low because it’s cool to do so based on the style of music you play, but it causes you to over-bend your wrists, making playing unnecessarily hard.

 

We all know that a guitar strap is made to hold a guitar via your shoulder, at an adjustable length to suit the position favoured by the guitarist. But the best way to play your guitar is comfortably! Now this statement may seem pretty obvious, but many guitarists think that they’re comfortable while playing their guitar.

In other words, if you’ve been playing your guitar for years really low & hunched over, chances are, the reason you feel comfortable is because you’ve given yourself curvature of the spine. Essentially, you’ve re-molded your posture. So over time your body has gotten used to this bad posture.

• Can you correct this bad posture with custom guitar straps?

• Can you improve your playing with custom guitar straps?

• Can you play long gigs with a custom guitar strap?

The answer to these questions is, YES!

 

As well as the right custom guitar straps, you need to adopt the right guitar strap height. Do you want your guitar positioned really low like Slash, or maybe extremely high like Shawn Lane?

 

Or do you want to set your custom guitar strap’s height to medium like Joe Satriani, or Tommy Emmanuel?

It is at the medium height that your body, hands, and wrists will feel the most comfortable. This is because your posture will be pretty close to a normal standing position. Setting your strap to a higher position than medium can be okay, as long as you are not raising your shoulders above a relaxed standing position. If you’re not willing to adopt a strap height within this range because you’re too set in your ways, you should probably ask yourself a few questions before you totally dismiss the idea of re-adjusting your stance.

1. Are difficult chords more difficult, the same, or easier to play after adjusting your guitar strap height?

2. Are scales more difficult, the same, or easier after altering strap height?

3. Are difficult passages more difficult to play after modifying your strap height?

4. How does your back feel after playing for extended periods of time in your old position compared to your new improved posture position?

 

If you already have good posture, due to correct strap height, disregard the previous. That is, unless you still have soreness after long gigs, rehearsals, or practice sessions. So if you fall into this category of players, or you’re one of those guitarists that believe it’s too late for you to change posture and the damage has already been done, you may take relief in the knowledge that there’s a product on the market that eases the pain, it’s called the

Gel Guitar Strap Shoulder Pad by Planet Waves.

 

This may be just the thing for those of you who have back and shoulder pain that gets worse the longer you stand and play. You may also want to check out the Padded Guitar Straps, and Sheepskin Guitar Straps categories for some excellent straps to prevent soreness or pain after extended playing periods.

So what do we mean when we talk about custom guitar straps, as opposed to normal guitar straps? Well, it doesn’t mean that you have to get an ultra specific custom guitar strap with diagonal stitching that leans to the left that’s made specifically for you & no one else. That would be ridiculous.

All that’s meant by the term custom guitar straps is that you customize it to you, the player. Can it look stylish, unique, cool, or even fashionable? Sure! It can be all of these things, but more importantly it can be practical, comfortable, strong, & long lasting as well.

 

So how do you choose the right one? Well, if you only have one custom guitar strap you’re already off to a bad start.

I know I speak for all guitarists when I say, we’re not one dimensional. We’re multi-faceted. We have many playing situations. This means that we need different custom guitar straps customized to each situation. You wouldn’t wear the same clothes for every occasion. If you did, you’d become pretty smelly, pretty quick. So if you don’t want your playing to stink – change your custom guitar straps & change them often to suit the occasion.

 

Let’s shed a little light on the different playing situations that a guitarist would encounter:

Situation	Custom Guitar Straps
Jamming with fellow musicians for an indefinite period of time	wide with padding
Practicing for an hour standing up	medium to wide
Practicing for an hour sitting down	any
Teaching a guitar student for 30 minutes	thin, or medium
Playing a short set at a music festival	medium
Playing a two hour concert	wide with padding
Improvising to backing tracks for an indefinite period	wide
Watching TV & playing during commercial breaks	any
Playing in two bands having completely different styles – showmanship could be a factor making physicality an element of one of the bands	depends on particular variables

 

One of the most under-valued approaches to becoming a more skillful Guitar Player is the idea of simplifying the difficult. This method is used for complicated sections of music, whereby you analyze the notes to determine where on the fretboard they are easier to play, together with the most appropriate techniques.

This idea of simplifying the difficult also applies to Guitar Straps, whereby you try multiple guitar height positions together with various guitar neck angles. The overall secret is: comfort and ease will improve your guitar playing.