I just bought a brand new Gibson Les Paul. I have always heard it is essential to install strap locks. After it slipped off my strap a few times, I now know why. [Of course I caught it.] So, I take the stap buttons off and begin to put on the stap locks. Believe it or not, but the screw that holds the rear strap button on is way bigger than the one that came with the strap lock. So I can either hope that the smaller screw will not come out, which of course it did, or drill out the strap lock button so the bigger screw will fit in it. What were they thinking????
Whose strap lock is it?
Get yourself a couple of hardwood toothpicks and some titebond.
Snap the toothpicks off to fit in the old strap button hole. Add a bit of titebond. Screw the new straplock in and don't put a strap on the thing for 24 hours. You are good to go.
No need for strap locks.
Get a locking strap. Just as effective; no way can it possibley come off and you dont need to do any work on your guitar.
I learnt the hard way before I got one, my new guitar just fell off my regular old strap at one end. Gave it about 6 chips and a little dent...
get the strap locks. I like being able to use different straps and such. Sometimes the strap just dont go with the outfit (clothes and such, makes me look like an idiot). I find it important to not look too much like an arse on stage. Really hard for me :oops:. Id get some new strap locks maybe (actually id probably try to make my own that are 20 times worse than any i can buy, i like doing that :P). I actually dont own straplocks, I just play sitting usually. I can do it standing though, i just dont because i dont play gigs and such. Ill be getting straplocks soon (i hope).
aka Izabella
I put Dunlop strap locks on my Les Pauls and I think I did have to drill the holes a little deeper to match the screws that came with the strap locks. Drilling on my guitars makes me really nervous but it worked out great. I think I would try Nick's suggestion for the oversized hole.
Another trick I use constantly when doing carpentry involves good old soap. If you drive a screw into wood you are displacing the wood (smashing it against the wood fibers next to it). To make it easier to drive the screw put some bar or liquid soap on the threads of the screw before you put it on. Why? It lubricates the hole you are making when you drive the screw and you'll have less a chance of cracking the wood. My penchant is to also predrill holes if they are much smaller than the screw. Just a thought.
And, yep, I did put straplocks on mine and I had to do the "Nick trick" combined with my soap and predrilling.
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
