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Can anyone recommend a decent guitar strap? I don't need anything fancy, but I play a Les Paul (heavy!) and have only ever used the generic Ernie Ball nylon straps. After 35 years of playing, it occurred to me that it could really be a lot more comfortable to play for long periods....

^ I too play a Les Paul and use the planet waves strap. Has nice little locking mechanism.

I was having some shoulder issues and just added one of those planet waves pads to standard strap and that really did the trick for me. I stitched mine in place because it moved around too much.

DiMarzio clip lock - It took a bit to get over feeling like (being) a dork, but whatever physics changed somehow my les paul has always felt comfortable - and it has never come undone. here's a sick cheetah one https://www.dimarzio.com/straps/cliploc ... h-cliplock or there's a LOT of Steve Vai ones, or there's a couple Jim Root ones if you're into that.

This is the bridge plate of my Ibanez parlour guitar.


When I bought it, it was already chewed up - it's clearly made of cheese, and the previous owner looks like they used blacksmiths tongs to pull the pins. My only concern is the way the strings are eating into it, particularly the wound ones.

What's a good fix for filling the string grooves, and for delaying them reappearing? Superglue and sawdust? Obviously replacing the whole plate with something more durable is an option, but one that would probably cost more than the guitar.

Dudley wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:14 am This is the bridge plate of my Ibanez parlour guitar.

When I bought it, it was already chewed up - it's clearly made of cheese, and the previous owner looks like they used blacksmiths tongs to pull the pins. My only concern is the way the strings are eating into it, particularly the wound ones.

What's a good fix for filling the string grooves, and for delaying them reappearing? Superglue and sawdust? Obviously replacing the whole plate with something more durable is an option, but one that would probably cost more than the guitar.

Do you like the way it sounds? If so I would honestly do nothing about the string grooves - if you fill them in the string would then hit the edge, it's going to wear on that edge of the hole almost no matter what because of the break angle off the saddle - they're wearing themselves some relief, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Here's a taylor bridge, with grooves cut into it for that reason (ignore what's out
if you want to fill in the marks on the bridge, because it's just on aesthetic parts I would just try lightly sanding them first, if they're not too deep. and then steel wool and finally some oil. You probably won't get them out but you'll dull them down to a point that no-one will notice from a couple feet away when you're rocking the casbah.

If they are deep and you want to fill - get some wood of a similar color (ideally you would sand THAT would) .. sand with very fine sandpaper to make dust of a icing sugar-like consistency. smear that into the divots with your finger, put drops of very thin superglue on it and sand it down.

That said, if it's your first time doing something like that - I would get some wood, hit it with blacksmith tongs, and then try the sawdust+superglue method it on that. it'll probably look worse than the marks on the guitar until your 5th, 10th, or 20th time doing it (you might be a super freak and great at things immediately, I'm not) .

*edit, picture too big

Dudley wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:14 am This is the bridge plate of my Ibanez parlour guitar.

When I bought it, it was already chewed up - it's clearly made of cheese, and the previous owner looks like they used blacksmiths tongs to pull the pins. My only concern is the way the strings are eating into it, particularly the wound ones.

What's a good fix for filling the string grooves, and for delaying them reappearing? Superglue and sawdust? Obviously replacing the whole plate with something more durable is an option, but one that would probably cost more than the guitar.

That's actually your bridge not bridge plate. The bridge plate is inside, under the top on the the other side of the bridge.

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Plenty of people actually ramp their bridges more than that to get a better break angle. I do it on the guitars I build. If the pins are loose, you could get unslotted ones but if they still fit, there's no reason to do anything.

elisha wiesner wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 7:58 am

Dudley wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 6:14 am This is the bridge plate of my Ibanez parlour guitar.

When I bought it, it was already chewed up - it's clearly made of cheese, and the previous owner looks like they used blacksmiths tongs to pull the pins. My only concern is the way the strings are eating into it, particularly the wound ones.

What's a good fix for filling the string grooves, and for delaying them reappearing? Superglue and sawdust? Obviously replacing the whole plate with something more durable is an option, but one that would probably cost more than the guitar.

That's actually your bridge not bridge plate. The bridge plate is inside, under the top on the the other side of the bridge.

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Plenty of people actually ramp their bridges more than that to get a better break angle. I do it on the guitars I build. If the pins are loose, you could get unslotted ones but if they still fit, there's no reason to do anything.

Cool.

My worry was that they are going to slice further into the wood, as all the scarring makes it look incredibly soft.

But happy not to do anything!

Thank you, Elisha.

Dudley wrote: Wed Jan 05, 2022 8:31 am

Cool.

My worry was that they are going to slice further into the wood, as all the scarring makes it look incredibly soft.

But happy not to do anything!

Thank you, Elisha.

Well, it probably will get a little worse over time but it's not close to needing to be replaced. Maybe keep an eye on it but it's still less than what a lot of new guitars come with.