http://www.etsy.com/shop/ukestar

Cheers, -F

This type of straps uses a hook placed on the f-hole (sound hole) edge and the strap wraps around under the body to the neck hang. Because of this design, you cannot fully let go of a uke like you can a guitar on a strap. If you do, the uke will tumble downward and will, more than likely, fall off the hook and crash to the floor.

I personally don’t like the idea of a piece of nylon or leather rubbing constantly against the body. I think it will eventually leave abrasions and scuffs on the places where the strap makes contact with the wood. I’ve seen evidence of this on classical guitars where the owner used a strap.

As such, I made my own “strap” (for lack of a better word) out of a wire coat hanger and then made a soft-cloth sleeve for it. I created a bracket that hooks to the f-hole and follows the angles of the body to reach the back. My first one had the back part of the bracket fully attached, but getting the uke to seat in the bracket caused rubbing along the edges. As such, the saddle of the bracket now has a hinge where the back piece is connected. This allows me to slip the bracket on and off the uke with relative ease and no potential harm to the wood. The cloth covering helps eliminate any wear by the bracket since the body of the uke does not rub against the metal frame… the cloth does. I made the neck strap non-adjustable, but it works for all my ukes.

All in all it was not a hard project to complete. I still can’t fully let go of the uke while playing, but it nicely frees up one hand. It also helped improve my picking ability for some reason. I think it is because I am not concentrating on both picking the strings, finger the notes and keeping the instrument held all at the same time.