Inexpensive guitar hacks

[_zedagive]

My 50 cent in-case humidifier:


https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...attach/jpg.gif

[Akousticplyr]

Clear pick guard installation with material cut to whatever pattern you need. I even put it above the sound hole as I aggressively strum and wear down wood in both directions.



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c9XKuourJs4

[Lee Callicutt]

I recycle old leather from shoes and belts for any number of tasks, especially to make protective strap button washers.

You won't find a better or cheaper straplock than a fiber reinforced rubber toilet tank bolt washer.

Prescription tablet/pill container: drill a decent sized hole in the lid, one in the bottom, insert rolled standard kitchen sponge and voila!, case humidifier.

[C-ville Brent]

Standard rubber washers from hardware store as strap locks. Similar to commercial washer locks produced by large guitar manufacturer, but usually about $1 for a pair used between strap and end of button of course. Have these on quite a few guitars and so far no fails.

[Traikat]

I use plastic traveling tooth brush holder as a humidifier for guitars. Drill holes in plastic, cut sponge into strips big enough to fit inside, fishing string to tie at end and q-tip to run through strings to hold inside sound hole. I realize its not fancy, but it does very well.

[ljguitar]

Hi all

Under 1$ case humidifier

[mercy]

bread bag locks for strap locks

[Bridgepin]

For guitar case humidifiers I took some of the old cassette cases that I had and drill some holes in them and bought a bag kitchen sponges trimmed them to fit, they have lasted for the longest time.

The only other thing I can add is my wife calls me a guitar hack everytime I talk about buying another guitar.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by C-ville Brent

Standard rubber washers from hardware store as strap locks. Similar to commercial washer locks produced by large guitar manufacturer, but usually about $1 for a pair used between strap and end of button of course. Have these on quite a few guitars and so far no fails.

I bought a bag of Grosch beer washers and it works great with my Les Paul. Joe Bonamassa uses that for his vintage Les Paul(s).

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Hey Mark - that's amazing that you're using a pickup stick as a saddle. I'm surprised that it sounds so good ... must have been a great fit.

The reason it sounds so good, of course, is that he used a vintage pre-war Brazilian plastic pickup stick!!


whm

[Wade Hampton]

My most useful guitar/mandolin hack was shown to me by my longtime guitar repairman Robert Howard when he showed me how he used the smallest crochet hooks to get in and grab hold of tightly wrapped strings that are proving difficult to get off of tuner posts. “This is probably one of the most useful tools I have,” he told me as he showed me a really tiny hook.

My wife and I have been talking about this as I’ve been writing this post, and she said that after I’d asked her about crochet hooks and why I wanted some she went to Walmart and bought the smallest set available, for around $10. Since I hadn’t used any of them myself yet, I wasn’t sure what size was going to prove useful. So it was easiest to get a full set.

Now that I’ve been using them for five years or so, I can tell you that the two smallest ones are the only ones that I ever use. So you could save a couple of bucks and just get the two smallest. But if you can envision other uses for them, getting the set makes sense. Robert told me that he also sometimes used one or two of the slightly bigger ones for other tasks.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[tonyo]

Great thread! Thanks.

[hubcapsc]

I took my collapsible music stand down to the laurel
that was blooming in the woods and used a piece of
romex to hold my ipad onto it securely. I have a
usb microphone and a three foot usb extension
cord, I tied my microphone onto a tomato stake
with a piece of twine and had this outdoors recording
studio...



-Mike

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

My most useful guitar/mandolin hack was shown to me by my longtime guitar repairman Robert Howard when he showed me how he used the smallest crochet hooks to get in and grab hold of tightly wrapped strings that are proving difficult to get off of tuner posts. “This is probably one of the most useful tools I have,” he told me as he showed me a really tiny hook.

My wife and I have been talking about this as I’ve been writing this post, and she said that after I’d asked her about crochet hooks and why I wanted some she went to Walmart and bought the smallest set available, for around $10. Since I hadn’t used any of them myself yet, I wasn’t sure what size was going to prove useful. So it was easiest to get a full set.

Now that I’ve been using them for five years or so, I can tell you that the two smallest ones are the only ones that I ever use. So you could save a couple of bucks and just get the two smallest. But if you can envision other uses for them, getting the set makes sense. Robert told me that he also sometimes used one or two of the slightly bigger ones for other tasks.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

Hi Wade, that sounds like a great 'hack'. Nothing worse than trying to remove a string only to stick yourself trying to get that last part unraveled from the tuner. I've used needle nose pliers for that before but not with much success.

[McCawber]

I'm gonna follow up on Wade's hack! Great useful idea! My simple hack is to put a rubber band around the headstock to hold my flatpick when not using it. Cheap, too.