I have a strap for the all-black Tele. I like the strap on my all-black Tele. It's a good strap. But it isn't pretty. This is a cool-looking strap. I want one!
Of course it is. The Boss is rich. And cool. He can afford cool-looking gear. You get to that level, either your less-cool gear becomes cool because of you or you purchase cool gear to supplement your coolness.
My first strap, now dedicated for use with my acoustic, is a big wide strap I got because I thought it looked like Stevie Ray Vaughn's strap, except it didn't have the big musical notes.
It seems like, past comfort and a certain amount of stick to keep a neck-heavy instrument in place, the strap is a mostly-fashion decision, and like all mostly-fashion decisions in a generally male-centered field, the default choice is black.
Why black? Because you're not gonna be out of place with black. If it was pink paisley and you showed up at a metal show with it, you'd be laughed at. Search for baritone guitars on Musician's Friend and you'll find mostly black instruments, I'm sure for that exact reason.
So, what all-fashion choices have you made with your gear?
4 comments:
"and like all mostly-fashion decisions in a generally male-centered field, the default choice is black."
Probably so. But, it should be noted that black is the "color" least affected by crappy stage lighting. And, most stage lighting is crappy. Black under the unfortunate yet inevitable green gel looks...black. Anything else under a green gel looks like roadkill.
I took the baritone guitar specific almost verbatim from shootout on baris in Guitar Player mag. I'm a bad word-stealing bad man.
But that is a good point.
Zaphod's attention however was elsewhere. His attention was riveted on the ship standing next to Hotblack Desiato's limo. His mouths hung open.
"That," he said, "that ... is really bad for the eyes ..."
Ford looked. He too stood astonished.
It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
"It's so ... black!" said Ford Prefect, "you can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!"
Zaphod said nothing. He had simply fallen in love.
The blackness of it was so extreme that it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it.
"Your eyes just slide off it ..." said Ford in wonder. It was an emotional moment. He bit his lip.
Zaphod moved forward to it, slowly, like a man possessed - or more accurately like a man who wanted to possess. His hand reached out to stroke it. His hand stopped. His hand reached out to stroke it again. His hand stopped again.
"Come and feel the surface," he said in a hushed voice.
Ford put his hand out to feel it. His hand stopped.
"You ... you can't ..." he said.
"See?" said Zaphod, "it's just totally frictionless. This must be one mother of a mover ..."
He turned to look at Ford seriously. At least, one of his heads did - the other stayed gazing in awe at the ship.
--Douglas Adams, from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
None more black, Dave. None more.
The conchos on that strap are silver. Not black. So it would be even less black than it is now!
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