(Don't Fear) TVvoodoo's Insanitarium

[jtcnj]

You had me at "nicely balanced".
Congrats - nice to find a real winner.

[TVvoodoo]

Endorserment time!



Congrats to @nomadh and @UrenragK (who I believe AKA nazgulak elsewere)
who were at least two AGF'rs I see who had names drawn.

my thanks to all those who earned ballots, a great variety of people from all kinds of forums, fbook, instagram etc.
better luck next year, keep on Endorsermenting if you are a Well-Hung guitarist!

Happy New year,

Brad

[UrenragK]

Congrats to @nomadh and @UrenragK (who I believe AKA nazgulak elsewere)
who were at least two AGF'rs I see who had names drawn.

Oh wow! Thank you Brad!!! I never win anything!!!

[Chocol8]

Congrats to the winners! I didn’t do a great job endorsing, mainly because I can’t post pictures on most other forums I visit. I hear TGP finally fixed that, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

FYI, my daughter is taking up bass and believes that SHE should be well hung too. Hey its the 21st century so why not? She wants a custom strap with a Twiddle/Mihali theme, so I will have to find some picture ideas and reach out on that one soon.

[nomadh]

Endorserment time!



Congrats to @nomadh and @UrenragK (who I believe AKA nazgulak elsewere)
who were at least two AGF'rs I see who had names drawn.

my thanks to all those who earned ballots, a great variety of people from all kinds of forums, fbook, instagram etc.
better luck next year, keep on Endorsermenting if you are a Well-Hung guitarist!

Happy New year,

Brad

Woo. Winning! Thanks Brad

[TVvoodoo]

No tropical vacay for Brad. No matter how much he begs his wife to allow him one.
She continues to insist she come along. What kind of getaway would that be? No thanks!

working on a couple tooled jobs at the same time... custom orders... I have a few in the queue, (not complaining!).
First off "Grapes of Wrath"



Funny story. Client who ordered it hates it. Says I got the grapes all the wrong colour to match his blurpleburst PRS (I did).
But this is the actual real life colour of grapes. Or sometimes they are green, or most often blue. They are only blurple in paintings
and grape soda cans. Still, I guess I have to make him happy, he already paid in full. So, I told him I would start over.

Luckily, over on The Tone Rooms, (really liking that group of miscreants BTW), a fellow who actually owned a vinyard at one time recognized
my true genius, and wants it. Unfortunately because he is super smart and firmly grounded in reality, he knows grape leaves are not black.
So, I have to somehow find a way to make it look like this.

Probably break out the airbrush or something in a couple weeks.

Also working on a floating pad custom for some Texas Cowboy... Project Wildflower:
a day and a half of tappy-tap... resulting in some sort of repetitive stress injury (but I'm dealing with it).



Herewith we Undergo The Paintings of the Black Dye Upon the Background



I'm getting better at this but it is rather stressful. Even though the parts I don't want dye on are protected, one splotch or moment of inattention, and things can go south real fast. Mostly safe this time, only a couple of boo-boos, but really you gotta be looking pretty close to spot 'em. Plus, them happy little splotches just add that "hand-painted character" right?



I wish I wouldn't have made the decision to make the letters in black. But once I headed down that trail, there's no turning back. It will all pull together better when antiqued... who knows? Could even turn out to be a cool decision. Kind of chancy though. No risk, no reward.



Going to let this dry overnight before the antiquing process which will serve to blend things together and also help juice up the detail.

And in-between things, we are turning up the gain a bit on this sling called Hell Rider, which will definitely go fully to "11" when it's done. Maybe even 12.



Biker bling from scratch is new territory for me, had to pick up some new tools to do it, but it's a custom order for another TTR forum brother who trusted me enough to see if I can make this happen. Probably be the most comfortable similar heavy metal looking type sling in existence. I figure this one might be complete tomorrow.

When it's arrived I think the owner might want to check into any possible state laws regarding required registration of dangerous weapons, or whatnot. That's all for today, all that intense dye painting/concentration has me sort of played out. Going to punch out early.... Miller time! (but not miller in particular).

[TVvoodoo]

Working on something called "Diamond Splitter"


.... managed to finagle the white MOTS nearer the right colour (and shape).



This resulted in a vigorous Tiger Woods style fist pump witnessed by nobody else. Sadly, I celebrate each of small StrapLab victory in isolation.
This is where we are headed... I hope!



Felt the urge to juice up the strap with a little style. BBCs are all about the style, right?



Carved and bevelled some big shape lines onto the strap, proceeded to texturize some chosen bits
Then, the pro-oil dye... will probably dye this one twice for none more blackness.
Kind of giving away where it's headed, going to be a back buckler style



Speaking of darkside... Held my breath, dived into grapes #1, and the antiquing process... I was looking for a particular shade of brown.
I missed by just a bit I think, it's almost exact where it needs to be right now, but once it's oiled and clearcoated might be a bit on the darkside.
Still, probably eventually fade into the exact shade. Like the shirt I used to proudly wear Grade 8... "Pobody's Nerfect!"



By the way, here's how the other one turned out... now actually headed toward Cali wine country



Having fun in the shop this week, I'll tell you what

[TVvoodoo]

Just some pix so all youse rubes know whats goin' on.

This one guy in Florida demands we trust the science. Sucker!
But he made me design and order a special stamp for him.



It's coming along ok, should finish it early this week. That was a tough dye colour
to get! I mixed up four batches of dye before I felt I was ready to move on it.

Made an extra wide and long Angry bird strap for a Mississippi T-thumper



Jethro in Saskatoon is Well-Hung, and rockin out



This one got lots of studs and you should have seen my hands that got wrecked making it



Diamond Splitter worked out supahot!



So did Grapes of Wrath 2



This one for a fellow AGF'r, his second Shock & Awe, and the first one ever in leather

[nomadh]

Endorserment time!



Congrats to @nomadh and @UrenragK (who I believe AKA nazgulak elsewere)
who were at least two AGF'rs I see who had names drawn.

my thanks to all those who earned ballots, a great variety of people from all kinds of forums, fbook, instagram etc.
better luck next year, keep on Endorsermenting if you are a Well-Hung guitarist!

Happy New year,

Brad

Brad, Thanks so much for the shirt and strap holders. Another great shirt from the well-hung collection 2022 edition but now more uptown, eariodite and looking like it came from a rodeo drive haberdasher. After 2 years of the media screaming at us about everything i appriciate well-hung designs has gone the opposite direction and now have just a small patch subtly implying your hung status.
I thought I recieved the package a few days ago but it was actually 3 weeks? Wth? Sorry about that.. I've been busier than I thought helping an elderly woman get her death benefits and such from ssi and get her medical stuff figured out after he husband's recent passing. I didn't expect this to be my new job after retiring.

Also looking forward to trying out the strap ends and see how they work for me.
Your biz has so expanded and agf is so small now I'm glad us here are still relevant to your now worldwide strap dominion.
I also need to pick a guitar case and stick some of these stickers on. I need at least one case that looks like a Willie Nelson road case.
Thanks for continuing the fun contest Brad!
Damon

[UrenragK]

Just some pix so all youse rubes know whats goin' on.


This one for a fellow AGF'r, his second Shock & Awe, and the first one ever in leather

It's my 3rd Shock & Awe, and I can't wait for the postman to deliver!

Looks like it worked out exactly how I thought it would in my head!

Thanks Brad!

[TVvoodoo]

Awwww you fellas are too kind... yes I'm finding a little less time for AGF, but I am always mindful of my "core" possee all those who encouraged me, early adopters etc. I still believe AGF members probably own almost half of my total output to date, but that's changing fast.

It's kind of a pain to post pics here... the tech. At the end of the workday there are several socials I gotta visit where I can somewhat cut and paste my daily straplab missive and pics into... but AGF doesn't allow that so it ends up usually last or more often plain off the list. I only have so much time in a day when I'm trying to make a living out of this.

I still visit here to read up on what's going on here generally every day. I visit like eight forums, and three other main social type sites trying to maintain a presence. Exhausting!

Haven't written any songs for months, or hardly even played guitar since early Nov. I got some chem burns on my left hand fingertips (my fault), and subsequently after peeling, getting infected, and drying out and scabbing then cracking up to start bleeding again... then swelling, getting infected etc. rinse and repeat for three months well let's just say it's been a frickin awful ordeal. A few weeks ago I was tooling custom orders so much my right arm was cramping up at the elbow, and I'd be useless for half a day after only a few hours

I am slowly starting to play again, can only stand it for a few minutes at a time, my fingers are super sensitive now and get irritated and injured so easily, drives a guy a little crazy.

Anyway, still grateful so many of the posse are here. I've never met even one of you in person but y'all feel like old friends to me.

[UrenragK]

It's kind of a pain to post pics here... the tech. At the end of the workday there are several socials I gotta visit where I can somewhat cut and paste my daily straplab missive and pics into... but AGF doesn't allow that so it ends up usually last or more often plain off the list. I only have so much time in a day when I'm trying to make a living out of this.

You can paste the images into the attachments part, if that helps mate,

Also, for me at least, your images don't show up, the link has "images2" in it, when I change it and delete the 2 I can see the image.

It would be great to meet up one day, and I cannot wait to get the care package that's on it's way from you now!

Big love to you my friend

[TVvoodoo]

Some recent new output from the StrapLab

Got a dude working on laying vinyl plank flooring in my home. Wife didn't want a trip or sparkly things for our anniversary. Only 1,500 sq feet of flooring would do... oh, and a new shower enclosure too Contractor Dusty told me he picks a little guitar. He's doing such a nice job I figured I'd tip him with a custom strap. We've had some long talks, he's got serious stuff going on at home in his personal life, so i figured I'd see if I couldn't give him an inspirational message that's cool but not too preachy. Hell, I've kind of been there myself decades back. Still clear-coating, will hand it over when the job is done. Hope he digs it!



A couple of new B+W Frankies I'm calling "Mean Street"... This is hoooooooome! ...Dance, Baby!



The roar of the surf, laughing gulls, soothing Hawaiian guitar, and warm fishy breezes, this one puts sand in your crack just lookin' at it.
Cowrie shells, thousands of beads, stone cabochons, and sand coloured suede all come together for "Bikini Bottom." Got some heft to it.



A total of three of these made. One still available. I'm donating the lions share of the price to humanitarian relief. so far $200, goal is $300
My wife and I are a mix of slav...I am Romanian/Ukrainian/Russian, my wife has some Czech - we love our pyrogies and cabbage rolls,
but little time for jokes... this is hard to watch.



Lastly, Calloo! Callay! I was able to snicker-snack another Jabberwock - 3 down, a series of six will be made. This big lizard grain leather has a mystical sort of glow to it that pictures don't show... never seen anything like it.



That's all for now. Hope you have a great weekend my AGF bros

[TVvoodoo]

Got a fun commission to make a lot of four, outfitting a whole band, plus one spare! The funniest thing is, being super cool peeps they will totally realize it might be a little cheesy to be seen wearing them all the same time.



However, I predict, once they do sling these and compare them to the old regular straps, we can add yet another reason for divisive band drama:
"You can't wear yours, I'm wearing mine tonight!" "No way dude, I can't wear my old poopy straps, I gotsa to be Well-Hung!"

Sunflowers are all the rage right now. This denim and tapestry strap is called "Hee-Haw" and is suitable for all your barnyard jamborees



Nice shot came in of a legit '62 Esquire (refin), all tweedly-wheedlied out for vintage style and modern comfort



Rick in Mississauga was particularly chuffed to find the oil-tanned leather ends matched the rosewood fretboard near perfectly. Keef also shown, enjoying his last smoke by doctors' orders. If he can quit, you can too! He sure didn't like this guitar much though:

" Well 'at's a fookin' royal cock-up there mate! Too many strings, man!" Shaking his head disgusted, he sneers, points a single accusatory crooked finger at me: "Been pissin' up against the wall again, then? " he queries, "Whyncha you ring me up? I tossed the fags, still need to get battered, ya arsehole."

Even in my fantasy meet-up, Keef is super mean to me.

Well-Hung Class Act form factor strap, made even more classy with some Marshall Salt 'n pepper grill, called "Playin' Dirty"
Got one of those black and creme outfitted pauls, maybe with zebras? This would complete it happily.



Also made a great new No Prisoners sample called "Hero." Comes to trying times and sandwiches, everyone loves a hero.



Legit bros saying nice things on Reverb:

"The straps are amazing, and the transaction way above and beyond expectations... The seller is a beast of creative energy! Stop thinking and just pick one - or three - and buy them. You won't be sorry." sayeth Walter in Maine, who grabbed up the first Baby Leo strap

Tom picked up one of the two "Power Trio" straps not far back in this thread, one still remains
"My highest recommendation, best seller on Reverb IMHO. Thank you again!" - Tom in San Diego

Ben picked up "The Bully" which had been in the Reverb store almost forever, made a very respectful offer and it became time time to let it go and finally get to work... "Incredible craftsmanship, wonderfully padded and sits great with my Les Paul. Will be purchasing from this shop again, for certain." Ben in Grand Rapids, MI

David in Texas is pleased with his custom "Chili Dawg" Class Act strap: "Amazing straps. Brad is more than willing to work with you to get you exactly what you want. Craftsmanship is outstanding. Comfort is next level. I am blown away with my strap. It sure won’t be my last Well-Hung strap! Thanks Brad!"

[TVvoodoo]

some straplab/insanitarium output lately

The Judge



Some new Stage Kings (haven't made for a few years)



A new 1969 Series, "Everybody's Talkin'"



Lizard King



A few new BluesBreakers in tweed, (with my SlideMaster, bottleneck docker installed)



A No Prisoners custom called "Nemesis"



A couple of new ZAP! straps I called Electric Dragon



More gems came in so work has also resumed on my self-torture project called "Paisley Royale"

[TVvoodoo]

Two new Glitterbombs now in-store!



Another Tarnished build, in soft silver



A new No Prisoners strap I called "The Guardsman" (sorry, already grabbed up)



Somebody actually found my secret lair, managed to break through extensive defenses and booby-traps and infiltrated the StrapLab



A Ltd Edition of four new ones now in-store called "Carnivore" would make Terrible Teddy proud

[TVvoodoo]

What's the haps with the straps? I sure appreciate anyone interested is following the StrapLab here, (and elsewhere for more current daily stuffs).

"Tangled" was made with one of them black quilty things in mind. The result of successfully getting a zebra to hook up with a sheep. I call it a Zheep.
Shebra, seemed a bit to pronouny NTTAWWT



"Gambit" features a whack of painted metal pyramid studs... another No Prisoners one-of-a-kinder!



Speaking of pyramids, if you like Well-Hung, and agree more is better, It's time you ordered up some "Stud Service"



Recently found a small amount of the most incredible distressed leather, it's soft, strong with a ton of character.
So amazing, it's the Willem Buscemi of guitar straps - short run called "Patina." One of my best series ever.



"Snakebit blues" brought to mind a TVvoodoo modernization of a classic "Two buddies out hunting" joke.
You have to go read it on Reverb though. It's totally worth the trip.



Videoshill "Mike Loves Guitars" made a nice little youtube review on some of my things.



Several cool new straps I didn't list here. Including one for the member of your band who really deserves a good solid bitch strap.
Fellas, I appreciate you watching, liking, wearing and sharing when you're feelin' it, enjoying your Well-Hungedness wherever you find it.

[TVvoodoo]

Still making Strapmasters... two pairs went out yesterday...



Weave is pretty cool



So Is Stitch


Now tooling something for a Samurai





Also... anyone here remember AGF RockStar Survivor, from years past?
Trying to Get another similar going on TTR if anyone would like some online summer fun



Deadline to jump in is midnite CST tonight

[TVvoodoo]

WARNING:
Sensitive viewers may find some of the following photos disturbing

Received a package in the mail with a whole bunch of vintage goodness...
Marcus asked me to assess his collection of retired vintagey straps for renovations to make them useable again.



I absolutely love looking at these old pieces, and I think in many cases it's a very worthwhile project to renovate antiquey straps, particularly if they hold sentimental value, and need a little help to be put back into active service.

Now some straps you are probably better off not renovating like say an old ACE as worn by (insert boomer artist here), to retain what can be significant value, but in this case my man wanted to make sure they were useable again so he could wear them and not keep them in a box on a shelf. I agreed in this case that was the best approach... I couldn't recognize any brand names except on KENT branded one.

First out of the package were these three hootenanny style straps, all with jaw-droppingly thin and floppy ends.
Question: Anyone else here dealing with worn out, loose and dried up old holes, both front and back?
This is most likely the result of overuse and abuse by you and maybe even some of your bandmates. wink-wink,



OMG!!!! Absolutely on the verse of bustin' out and dropping your precious. I could easily see why he retired all three of these, I wouldn't trust even a beater guitar on any of them. Generally solid construction, but those ends? They just got old. Terrifying. Dry rot is an awful thing. PRO TIP: You can actually head some of this off with some regular conditioning with quality leather products.

Anyway, I pitched him some ideas, new ends on all for sure... remove the metal rings and rivets... replace the sharp metal buckles with ABS plastic. The lining on this one was worn almost through... and was separating from the main ribbon. So I added a new black crushed velvet lining. It also had sharp/cutty sides on the ribbon, so I left the new lining stick out a wee bit on each side so it won't bite into his neck any more. I use way better thread than most strapmakers too, about twice as thick.



All of these were at or near max adjustment at about 51" so I guessed he might like a little more ajustment on them. I couldn't make more ribbon of course, but I could make the ends a bit longer than the original...



I was able to add about 2.5" on the back end, about 1.5" on the nose end on each so a total about four inches extra on the renovated straps. He'll definitely be able to find his comfort zone now.



I used my regular black leather on all of them, which is roughly about twice as thick, maybe a tad more, and has a little stiffness to it. Not shown above, I triple sewed the leather ends to the ribbon and lining, opting to not use any rivets, getting rid of the metal loops and now good ABS sliding buckles, instead of your typical sharp metal ones.



All three completed today... I just love the idea of putting these vintage beauties back to work with confidence. I wanted to add some padding into the body of the strap, but he said he wanted to keep them close to original, and I can't fault a fella for that. I REALLY wanted to make these into wider more comfy straps and offered him a smoking deal, but... nope LOL!

I mentioned there were four straps in the package.. more like 3 and a half. The other half a strap Marcus sent me was this super funky old ACE brand floating pad... with a bit of tail strap and the original buckle. I expect that the other part of the strap busted and got chucked.



Super skinny, only about 1/2" wide which is a little scary to me. But I couldn't put anything wider through the loops, and keep it close to stock. I selected some quality veg-tan from my stash (a little heavier than the original) and am now in the beginning stages of replacing the skinny straps. For extra fun, Marcus also gave me the go-ahead to tear into the pad and replace the padding inside that as well...

I absolutely offer any repair/renovation services for your old straps, at what I think reasonable prices. You folks already know, show your gear a little love, it will definitely love you back.

Ok and last week was the Week of ZAP! in the StrapLab... a full week of various new bolt straps ready to electrifry your stage presence

Some cool examples...



And finally, one step forward on the Paisley Royale... a discussion on tummy cuts and "how to" came about on TGP, since I had decided that once you go shaped, there ain't no escape... for this one, I figured why not tape my own low tech method... via CNC (crazy nonsensical canadian)



Hope all is well with the Insanitarium watchers, all three of you anyway LOL!

Update!!! Floating pad has s new improved skinny strap, and repadded the shoulder pad too. The old padding had turned to a yellowish powder inside, packed rock hard!

[TVvoodoo]

Gunmetal, in my Class Act back buckler design... only one left now



A couple of Bandidos, (basically the old Bad Hombre, but with a heavy leather ladder back adjustment instead of the sliding buckle version) in Chipotle and Chili



Fiore, new in the Star Power series, kind of a colour changing flip flop black velvet with gold sparkle details



King of Bling



A pair of Canuckian Customs



Mamba No. 5



Matching up a neckthru LP build



Trying my hand at rifle slings!



Not much else going on around up here. Hoping to get some camping in sometime.

[TVvoodoo]

Hey how's it goin'? I actually did get some camping in and some more of my regular activities.

Such as" "I wear my sunflowers at night"



"Umlaut"



Boneyard



Come at me Bro



And started a new series I should call "Pathos" but called "Prophecy" instead.



These are "inspired-bys" based on work by another boutique strapmaker whos business has imploded in a storm of
legal issues, unfulfilled orders, allegations of fraud and extremely angry customers. No need to mention the brand,
but several of my customers were left holding the bag on custom work, and it's an ugly scene all around.

Took my first job to tool a telecaster pickguard, and this weekend also should have a new Amp'd line strap called
"Goes to Eleven" ready to go too. Redlespaul found me on facebook, which was also exciting!

Oh, and the strap buttons got a nice review as well.



Have a great weekend my AGF Warriors!

[tonebender]

Glad to see you are enjoying so much success Brad. I still love my straps.

[TVvoodoo]

Thank you @tonebender I told my multimillionaire golf partner on Sunday I'm living the starving artist life but not exactly starving... just kinda hungry - I like being my own boss tho

something a little out of the ordinary for me... A custom tele pickguard Step by step...

[TVvoodoo]

Decided to buy in on another guitar show table, been building up to that. These thing are so much stress and work... I get my hopes way up. Such a dreamer.

Here's some newer stuff i"ll be dragging along... Metallion


A few new Genocides: L-R "Squirter" "Well of Souls" and "Blood bath"



Been a great fall for my annual Saskatchewan Muskeg Python harvest









I invented a sexy new dye/stain colour



Pressed some tees for the show in Charcoal Frost, Blues Lawyer Blue, Butterscotch Blonde, Fiesta & Surf



Lots going on! Hope all is well with the coastal Well-Hung Warriors be safe and Keep yer heads on a swivel!

[TVvoodoo]

Unholy Trinity custom set for in New Jersey "Toxic Croc" "Fire Python" and "Red Horseman" in my Ethos inspired style. Is it wrong to borrow ideas froma business that allegedly ripped off a whole bunch of people?



Worlds first-ever python strap in Pumpkin Spice. Visually all I can say is ..YUM!



A couple new Umlaut Series straps yet to be named... not yet in the store... this week for sure.



Guitar show was nuts. My booth was swamped. Many, many straps got rudely felt up in rather lewd ways by a bunch of strange men.