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• Dunlop Straplok |
The general idea of the thing is to prevent your guitar from falling. When the strap is held with standard buttons, it can slip off. At first glance I thought that it's almost impossible, but in fact I had this situation a couple of times. I was lucky that I managed to catch the guitar just in time. After that I decided to buy the Dunlop Straplok. I know Schaller makes similar thing, but looking at photos I preferred Dunlop for it doesn't stick out so much. Well, look at photos and decide for yourself.
Shaller Straplock (Chrome):
Dunlop Straplok (Nickel):
So, I'll tell about the Dunlop thing. What you want to buy are: 1)the Straplok itself and 2)a pair of special strap buttons.
Straplok is fitted on both ends of your strap and the two special buttons are to replace buttons on your guitar.
It's easy to fit new buttons. IMPORTANT! The manual (read below) says that you should drill a hole for the buttons. But shurely, you don't need to do it: just use old ones. Only if you feel that the screw is not fixed well in the hole, drill a new one.
The installation of Straplok on your strap requires something like hammer to snap the retainer clip (5). I use pliers with a hammer:)
The whole procedure looks like this:
(citation from installation instructions)
Slip locking pin (1) through the recessed washer (2); insert locking pin (1) through strap hole (3); slip flat washer (4) over locking pin (1) against strap (3); snap retainer clip (5) into locking shank groove.
Strap button installation: Remove existing strap button; drill hole 1/8" diameter, 1" deep; attach strap button (6) with new screw (7): tighten screw with caution!
Look how different parts of Straplok looks in life:
So, you have your strap with Straplok fitted and your guitar with new buttons. Just press a plunger on the locking pin (1) of Straplok and insert the pin into button. Release the plunger and pull the strap to check if it locked well. Apply the same procedure to other side of the strap and you are ready to rock! The guitar won't fall. After you rocked for a couple of hours you may want to remove strap from your guitar. Then just press the plunger again and pull the locking pin out of strap button. That's all.
Yeah, I almost forgot to say important things:
1) Surely, you can choose any of 4 colors (Nickel, Brass, Black Oxide, Gold Flash).
2) You can choose the design of the strap buttons (hold the mouse over a picture to see the model's name):
Original - slim button design for flush mounting or external use (On the photo - Black Oxide color, model SLS1103BK):
Traditional - extra wide flange provides an edge (On the photo - Nickel color, model SLS1501N):
Dual Design - wider flange button provides extra security (On the photo - Brass color, model SLS1032BR):
Flush Mount - internal mounting feature for sleeker profile (On the photo - Gold Flash color, model SLS1404G):
I bought an SLS1501N model (Traditional, Nickel). Here's how it looks:
By the way, there is so-called "low cost protection alternative" to Straplok: Dunlop LokStrap. It's something cheap, it doesn't require strap buttons' installation. But it looks..hmm..unreliable. Something like black plastic. I don't think it would be a good substitute to Straplok.
PS: Surely, it's not an instruction for fitting Straplok on your guitar in any way. I know that when you will buy your own Staplok, you'll get instructions in the package. The purpose of the whole article is to give you a general idea of what to await from Straplok and what you should do to install it.
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