Strap yappin'

From the desk of Ned P. Rauch:

Following restorative weekend visits to the beach and my beautiful Adirondack mountains, I returned to Gotham thinking this:

There are a lot of strange things about guitar players, but the strangest is how often they use generic guitar straps when nice, custom straps are both affordable and available. Store-bought straps, with some rare exceptions, are lame, anything but unique, and not all that cheap, either. My strap was a birthday gift from a girlfriend. One of my favorite presents of all time, it comes from the Leather Artisan, in Childwold, NY. Childwold, in case you don't know, is the capital of Middle of Nowhere, but the shop turns out really good stuff and the drive is a dream. I'd post an image of this beauty, but in pictures the thing looks like a flat, brown snake. Or a giant tapeworm, assuming tapeworms are brown. Up close, though, you can see all sorts of carvings—subtle little scallops, arches and fans. To be honest, it's a classy strap. And it was custom-made by a nice guy for about $50. Now, that's twice as much as a nylon strap from a store, but it's a thousand times cooler and it'll last longer. What really galls me is seeing guys like John Mayer using these awful Fender straps. Isn't it enough of an endorsement that he's playing a Fender guitar? My guy in Childwold, by the way, takes orders. Just sayin'.