D’Addario has just unveiled the Auto Lock Swivel Strap and while that might not register on the gear drops of the week, not when Fender went big with the Player II Series, it might just change your life.
No, really, and this clever little accessory has a remarkable backstory involving the venerable Joe Satriani and Mr Ned Steinberger, the brainiac pioneer of headless electric guitars and basses.
The curse of the twisted guitar strap is one that befalls all players at some point or another and those with a rear-facing strap button – hello, SG owners, we’re looking at you – will appreciate exactly just how annoying this is.
You know the drill. You will be playing live, trying to get into the zone, nail your parts and hopefully entertain the audience, always a bonus, and yet here is this two-inch piece of rabid nylon trying to chew its way through your upper body. There would have been Medieval dungeon masters who would have outlawed this on humanitarian grounds.
Well, if you have been affected by this – and if you’ve played, say, an ES-335, an Explorer, a Flying V, Fender Starcaster or Gretsch G2655, etc, then you will have – then the Auto Lock Swivel Strap might just be the best 20 bucks you will have spent.
It essentially combines two of D’Addario’s existing designs, taking Steinberger’s Auto Lock and pairing it with Satch’s Swivel Strap.
The Auto Lock allows you to easily clip the strap on and slide it off via a quick and easy spring-loaded system, with a locking connection that ensures your guitar doesn’t hit the floor. Satch's design features a swivel loop that does all the twisting that your strap wants to do. And that’s that. Simple physics.
We could foresee this being just as useful for some acoustic guitars, too. Spec-wise, you’ve got a two-inch wide piece of super-tough polypropylene, with an adjustable length between 35.5” and 59.5”. It is not compatible with end pin jacks or plastic strap buttons.
Pro-tip, courtesy of Paul Gilbert, and related if you want to wear your guitar low like Jimmy Page but are worried about not being able to reach the strings let along consider fretting an F major barre chord, wear high-waisted trousers instead and it will look as though the guitar is low. "Google ‘Jimmy Page live’ and you’ll see he had the highest pants in the business!” he told us.
You can have any colour you like so long as it’s black, and D’Addario has is not offering any padded options as of yet. But who knows, if this takes off in a big way, maybe the guitar strings and accessories specialist will release more variants somewhere down the line.
For more details, head over to D’Addario.
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