Holding Picture Learning Supplement

 

Home

 

Other

Holding your guitar, Chapter Three on the DVD - Update, Strap button placement

1. Lower strap button placement is almost always on the sides at the center of the tail block

2.Strap button, upper bout, placement is often placed in one of these three locations

   A. Side above the heal, most common:

B. Also on the heal or heal cap (back of the guitar on the heal)

C. Lower part of the heal at an angle, my favorite:

 

3. However, my favorite location is here, at the bottom side of the heal (above two pictures).

           

Here are my reasons for this: 

A. When holding your guitar you should tilt the head up to about a 56 degree angle (note full holding picture,   and/or chapter four of the DVD Easy Guitar Now. Now your nose is directly above the neck/body joint. If you have strap button in this position, it will be a straight pull on the strap and it will be secure. However, in other positions, especially position number one (the most popular position), the strap will pull off of the button and you can drop your guitar. This is especially true when the strap becomes used and will slip off the button easily.

B. Guitars are often head-heavy and will balance off to the left, or head side. This is annoying and can be distracting in playing and practicing. Putting the strap button in position four puts the guitar a full two inches to the right, or body side, which puts the weight more toward that side and helps to balance the weight evenly.

C. When you are holding your guitar correctly, you left hand, or fretting hand will naturally come straight up to the center working part of the fingerboard (at about the fifth or sixth fret). Position four makes this a natural action. Position one places the guitar too far to the left which puts your hand on the fingerboard at about the seventh or eighth fret, not the center working part of the fingerboard.

  

 

NOTE: You will know that your guitar strap is adjusted to the correct height when your left hand is in the center working part of the fingerboard and your hand is straight with you arm with no tension or twisting. Please remember to pull your left hand and fingerboard back enough to see your fingers on the fingerboard

 .