Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK, I'm 47 years old and have been playing for 30+ years. I'm not cool. I'm not "in the game." I'm a "short strap geek" and adjust my guitar strap to where I can best play my guitar. It's not quite up under my chin, but it's definitely not down around my knees in the "cool zone."

I feel much better now having admitted this. Thank you.

Someone told me the neck should run along the same parallel as your belt, but I usually go a little higher too.

Looks cooler to me anyway from a perspective this side of the Atlantic, usually only HM / hard rock guitarists have low straps & that's part of the image for those genres.

Might be different in the US though?

OK, I'm 43 years old and have been playing for 30+ years. I'm not cool. I'm not "in the game." I'm a "long strap geek" and adjust my guitar strap to where I can best play my guitar. It's not quite at my shoetops, but it's definitely down around my knees in the "cool zone."

I feel much better now having admitted this. Thank you.

(Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or something like that...and speaking of imitation, the reason I wear the strap so low is because Paul Simonon of the Clash wore his bass that way...)

Mick, do we know each other?
A friend in high school could barely reach the G on his bass it was so low. He couldn't find a strap long enough, so used a piece of chain. I have moved mine up a couple of inches over the years, but the strings are still below my waist. Low slung hollow body epiphone, circa 1991.

OK, I'm 45-years-old and have been playing for 30+ years. I'm not cool and it has nothing to do with my guitar strap. I'm wound a little too tight, tend to be a little too precise in my speech, and don't have a funky bone in my body. There, I feel better already...

See, we're all sharing.

Cupcakes, anyone?

I split the difference.

Oh. Then. I'm soon to be 28 years old, have been playing for 10+ years, i'm uncool, and the strap doesn't matter much to me. Not really because i've got my first strap just a coupla weeks ago & always been sitting on a chair or something while playing. Rather because i just cannot play.

I strap my 4003 at just about the same length as Alan's bass.

Lower might look cool, or not. Much more subjective as I get older.

Lower is also sloppy if the player isn't very careful. Even the great Jimmy Page was sloppy in concert cuz he slung it very low and was drunk many times as well.

Ah, not a good combination. It may look good, but it can sound awful.

My bass hangs at about the same place as Alan's too. I used to be in a band with a guitar player that looked like he was playing an electric violin. The body of the guitar was just below his neck. It looked pretty lame, but he was good.

You look at pictures of the early Beatles, and they wore their guitars fairly high.

I am 20 years old and have been playing for 3+ years and I am a "short strap geek". I can't play my bass when I have it down low...I get sloppy and I can't play at all in the upper register. I'm a total "nipple rider" (the upper horn of my bass is right around my nipple area) but I don't care even if I am a heavy metal guy. I think it's better to sound good than to look good.

I'm 47, have been playing off and on (mostly off) for 31 years, and have found that, unfortunately, the position of my instrument has had to shift from "cool" to "whatever works with my waistline". Not bad with a Ric, but murder with a T-Bird.

BTW Guitar Player has a metal playing contributor, Rusty Cooley, who is a short strap guy, the logic being that he practices seated, so why not keep the guitar in the same position when he's standing? Makes sense to me.

I'm very fussy about how high my bass is and it's absolutely nothing to do with how it looks, it's how it feels and plays, it's probably about medium height.