I know this issue has been covered many times before. I've even encountered it myself on a few occasions. I have just received a brand new guitar. A beautiful, custom shop Martin (NGD coming soon!). A
new one. My first NEW Martin ever. As such, it's completely stock with no front strap button.
I always play standing, stapped. Gigging, noodling, practicing - I stand. So I'm very used to playing with a strap. Generally speaking I much prefer the 'Taylor' front strap button position which is on the treble side of the heel. I would always have front strap buttons installed there or on the rare occasion when I dared, installed one myself. I know it's not rocket science and fairly simple to do as long as you take your time. But it's still SO VERY HARD to put that drill to your new baby. Visions of the drill bit slipping and making a nice long gash or worse seeing the neck spit or crack are the things that nightmares are made of!
This new guitar I plan to keep at home. I have gigging guitars. So keeping it completely stock has an appeal to me. But the only recourse for strapping up without modification is tying to the headstock. But I've tried this before and I just don't like the feel of the way the guitar hangs using this method. Maybe I'd get used to it? Another wrinkle is that due to it being a slotted headstock the string angle is too severe to get any sort of strap or lace in the preferred spot just behind the nut under the strings. So I'd have to tie farther up on the headstock.
And speaking of wrinkles, while perusing some of the many old threads about this subject I stumbled onto a link to the great Stewmac page that talks about the various options for front strap button installation and they actually flat out state the following: "What about tying the strap to the peghead?
Don’t do it. You don’t want that kind of strain pulling at the neck that you’ve so nicely adjusted the action on." I added the bold to the statement but that's pretty definitive. And yet of course we've seen many a player use this method for as long as there have been guitars and guitar players! Here's a direct link to that Stewmac page in case you want to see it:
Where's the best spot for your strap button?
As if all this wasn't bad enough, here's yet another wrinkle. Of all the front strap button placement options, I've always hated the back of the heel placement the most. The funny thing is that I recently went over to Cole Clark for my gigging guitars and this is where they place their buttons. So I've had to set up my strap lock system for this which means the front strap lock faces the opposite direction. So if I want to set up the new Martin to use this strap, it means putting the strap button in this location!
So, there you have it. My options are 1.) Do nothing, install no strap button and use the headstock front tie method and see if I eventually acclimate to it. 2.) Drill the rear heel and add the button there so I can use my existing strap lock system as set up for my Cole Clarks. 3.) Drill the 'Taylor' position and buy another strap lock system for one of my other straps. Barring the warnings from Stewmac about NOT tieing to the headstock, I think I'm going to do just that for now. After all, I never thought I'd acclimate to dreads in the first place and now that's mostly what I play. So why not give it a shot, right?
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear from anyone out there that has faced this dilemma, especially those that never liked the tieing to the headstock method but gave it another go and whether or not you persevered or just finally gave up and drilled the hole! Just for fun I figured I'd make this a simple poll.
Update with final decision:
While the vast majority voted for just sucking it up and installing the strap button in the neck heel side position it really didn't influence my decision to do just that. It was a combination of decided to have the bottom drilled out for a pickup install so while I was at it I had my guy install the front strap button. And while I had acclimated to the headstock strap position fairly well, it still never quite felt right. Now it does. Thanks for all your votes and opinions.
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