How To Hold A Guitar - Strap Or No Strap

Some fussy guitar players get a bee in their bonnet about the contentious question or when, how and whether to use guitar straps. There is the burning question of whether they can help you to damage your guitar in some way. There is also the issue of the guitarist's comfort, health and whether you play better with or without the strap.

When solid body electric guitars first came on the market they came already fitted with straps or a button on the guitar, ready to attach a strap. This is because a solid body guitar is so much heavier than a hollow body guitar that you needed to support it with a neck strap.

So will hanging your guitar using a strap cause it any damage? Most guitar players and luthiers with any amount of practical experience will probably tell you no. Storing a guitar by hanging it up on the wall will not make the neck warp. Neither will playing your guitar with the strap anchored at the end of the neck near the tuners.

The solid body guitars were not the first instruments to use straps. Practically all professional musicians who played on stage standing up, supported their guitars or mandolins or accordions with a neck strap. The difference was that the straps were anchored near the tuning pegs instead of at the top of the guitar body. In the nineteen twenties and thirties many guitars came from the factory fitted out ready to take a strap. The Martin guitar factory usually placed a button to hold a strap on the back of the top of the neck. The Gibson company also placed a strap button on the neck of their guitars.

Most solid body electric guitars are not heavy enough to be damaged by hanging them up. An electric guitar weighs a maximum of about eleven pounds. The stress that hanging that weight is still not in the league of the tension the neck is under from the strings. Lots of guitar players hang their guitars on the wall for years at a time and many guitar stores and luthiers store their guitars the same way.

So now we have cleared up the question of guitar death by hanging, what does cause a guitar neck to warp? The answer is heat and humidity. Cheap guitars can be made from inferior woods that won't stand being place for long periods in places like car trunks. So of you have one of the cheaper model guitars, be careful about the environment it's stored in.