In Case You're Sober

This is one of the classic guitar hacks: You can take the red rubber off the stopper of a Grolsch bottle and put it on the buttons of your guitar as a quick-and-easy strap lock.

That is, if you drink beer.

I do not.

Adam Levy has a series of lessons, and among them is ...

Lesson #5. Keep your guitar strap from falling off. Sure, you can buy hardware specifically designed to keep your strap locked on, but some such products can be a drag because you have to modify your guitar to install them. Thanks to guitar-tech extraordinaire Kelly Macaulay for suggesting a cheap, easy-to-use alternative that requires no alterations to your instrument: neoprene rubber faucet washers, available at any ol' hardware store for about 69 cents. The ones I use are made by the Danco Company of Concordville, Pennsylvania. The Danco stock number is 61805B - these are 1-1/4" in diameter, 1/6" thick, and have a 1/4" hole in the center. To get the washer over your strap button, use the first finger and thumb of each hand to grip it at the 9 o'clock position and 3 o'clock position, then pull in opposite directions. That'll open the hole just enough to get it onto your strap button. (Your strap should already be on the guitar first. The washers go over your strap ends.) Removal is even easier - grab the edge of the washer and pull it over the button and toward the opposite side, as if turning the page of a book.

My main Tele has Schaller straplocks. My backup is in the shop, waiting for me to pay for the new bone nut it sports, and because I can see wanting to swap straps between it and my main one, it will get Schallers, too. But my acoustic? That would really use these. Especially as that one sports my wonderful 25-year-old wide long and comfortable strap with the worn-out holes.

I'm on the skinny end of the month, so I won't be giving the Danco Company of Concordville, Pennsylvania any of my money right now, nor the Grolsch Brewery of the Netherlands. But yeah, that looks like a great idea.

Of course, you can just use a big metal washer if you aren't going to take the strap off the instrument, or an eye-bolt like Eddie Van Halen.