DIY Leather Straps

While looking into getting a few nice leather straps for my old Fender basses I came across a few videos from Brookwood Leather showing how they make custom leather straps.  If you know me, you know that I love to do things myself and often get myself into projects that can quickly get over my head.  So..... I headed off to Tandy Leather Supply and bought a large piece of leather and a few simple tools and decided to give it a try.

Here are my first 2 straps!  The darker colored strap is dyed brown and distressed to look and feel like a 30 year old strap.  The lighter colored strap is the natural color of the leather and I will leave it unsealed so that the oils from my hands will naturally color and wear the strap to give it a nice vintage look over time.

The reason I was looking into a custom strap was to get a strap cut to the exact length I need and not have it be adjustable so that's how I made these straps.  There is one hole on the end that mounts to the horn of the instrument and I have 2 strap holes on the end that mounts behind the bridge so I can adjust the height by picking what hole to use in the back.

I still have some leather left so let me know if you see something you might want me to make.

Pedal Board Tips

Today I made a simple deal board for Houston guitarist Nolan Burke.  He had bought a Pelican 1700 case to get him through his summer on the road and wanted a pedalboard to go inside.

(http://pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1700)

 I used to build custom flight cases for pedal boards and I think the Pelican is a great solution if the size fits your needs.  The case is super strong, lightweight, and has recessed wheels to make trips through the airport a breeze.  To keep things simple I just made a simple flat 3/8 thick pedalboard that I believe was 12.5 x 33. The board had an ABS plastic top, routed and painted edges and a rubber (shelf liner) glued to the bottom to keep the board from slipping on stage floors.  The ABS plastic works great for stick on velcro or what I prefer is the double sided mounting tape found at Lowes.

The trick to getting the mounting tape to work is to remove all the rubber from the bottom of your pedals, then double up 2 pieces of tape to make it a little thicker to clear any screws that are sticking out below the pedal.  I usually use a strip at the upper and lower part of the bottom of the pedal.  Then firmly press the pedal in place on the ABS surface and it will stay put until you are really ready to pull it off.


 Here is a pic of the board tilted up in the Pelican 1700 case showing the end mounted wheels.

Here is a picture of the underside of the board showing the rubber liner glued to the bottom.  I find that this works better than screwing or riveting rubber feet to the board because the rubber feet tend to get ripped off and take up and extra 1/2 inch of height inside the case.

I'll follow up with a picture of the board once the pedals are all mounted and hooked up..

2 New Overwater Basses To Be Completed Soon

I'm very excited about 2 basses that I am having Chris May and Martin Lee at Overwater in  Carlisle United Kingdom.

The first is a 33" scale maple/ash Jazz bass with downsized dimensions and close string spacing.  This bass will have a sunburst ash body with a maple neck and black bound maple fingerboard wit Overwater pickups and a passive buffered preamp.

Here is the Ash for the Jazz Bass:

Here is the body and neck cutout

Here is the neck fitted to the body:

This is my favorite picture, it is the maple neck with the ebony binding!

The second bass is a Scott Devine model 33" Perception bass with medium weight ash body, Spaele top, Wenge neck and fingerboard with Overwater pickups and East preamp.

The progrès pictures I have received from Martin look great and they basses should hit the spray booth next week and then be on their way to the USA in another 2 weeks.

Here is the Sapele top

I chose the fingerboard on the left:

Here is the headstock veneer being glued to the headstock

Here is the cutout for the neck:

More pics to come in the following days.....

Nashville Showcase with Savannah Berry

Hello! I just set up this blogging account to keep track of my life at home and on the road playing music and this is my first post.

I'm in Nashville right now after playing a Record Label Showcase last night with Savannah Berry from Houston Texas.

The show was at 12th and Porter and went great, I know everyone is a bit received to have the stress of an industry showcase over with and I hope it leads to some exciting opportunities for Savannah. The band was great to and I hope to get the opportunity to play with the guys again some time soon.

Headed to the airport and back home this morning.