We offer a number of choices for mandolin straps, and sometimes choosing between them can be tricky. We've put together this guide to help.
Mandolins are lightweight instruments that don't put much pressure on your shoulder. Therefore the job of a mandolin strap is to…
1. Prevent your precious instrument from falling on the ground.
2. Hold your mandolin in a comfortable position so that your hands and arms are free to focus on playing.
These jobs are important whether you are playing whilst sitting or standing.
All Pinegrove straps fulfil both of these roles perfectly. In fact, if you really wanted, you could attach one of our 4 inch wide (100mm) bass guitar straps to a mandolin and it would do a great a great job. It might look a little odd though!
More sensibly, we offer a range of slimmer straps in different widths.
There is also the MS50 with a cord loop, 1 1/4" wide (30mm) and the compact MS37, just a 1/2" wide.
First off is to check the type of mandolin you have. There are two main types used in folk, bluegrass and country music today, known as the A-shape and the F-shape.
In this picture, an A-shape is flanked by two F-shape mandolins. The A-shape has a teardrop shaped body, while the F-shape has a peculiar "scroll" at the top corner. Many players like to fit one end of a strap into this scroll. The Pinegrove MS50 strap is designed for this purpose.
The cord loop fits into the scroll. The other end of the strap fits onto the strap pin at the lower end of the body.
Although designed for the F-shape mandolin, the MS50 strap can be fitted on any mandolin. The cord can either be threaded around the headstock (where the tuning pegs are),or around the top of the body.
Most of our other mandolin straps are designed primarily for fitting to strap buttons. If you don't have a strap button at the heel of your mandolin (where the neck meets the body),you can attach it to the headstock with one of our free headstock loops.
As for width, you have these choices:
The wider the strap, the more comfortable it is. A mandolin is very light though, so choose the one you like the look of best.
There is one strap we have hardly mentioned yet - the custom-made, fixed length MS37. This is a very compact strap with a fixed length. This is the type most commonly used by bluegrass musicians such as Bill Monroe. We only make it to order, and it can be configured for any kind of attachment. Check out the listing for more info.
You can see all of our straps for mandolin at https://www.pinegroveleather.com/pages/mandolin Need more advice? Just contact Rod using the Get In Touch page or email info@pinegroveleather.com
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