|
| How Lock-it® Guitar Straps came about...
A few years ago, my daughter Diane bought a brand new Höfner bass guitar. While we were playing a few tunes, her bass slipped right out of the strap - she barely caught it. One week later - the same thing happened. I was puzzled because her strap was just as new as her guitar! It was hard to believe that a lightweight guitar could fall out of a strap so easily! Unfortunately, as many have found out - they do! Actually, the same thing happened to me on several occasions - but the guitars were much heavier. I just thought it was the guitar. But after thinking about it for a while, I realized that most straps suffer from the same basic problem. As one musician put it, "they're just leather with a HOLE." Of course -- the end of the strap is the weakest link. It's just a matter of time when the leather wears and expands the opening. So obviously, if the opening is already large enough to get an endpin through, then when it wears, it's that much easier to get it out - simple enough. What a tragedy for anyone having to ruin a beautiful guitar because of an ordinary strap! I wanted to design a locking device that was simple and easy to use - one that was conventional in nature, one that would take care of that "hole" problem and one that would be easy on the guitar. At the same time I wanted to avoid the obvious drawbacks of many devices that were already on the market - to me, modifying a guitar was not an option. In time, I thought I had a fairly "clever idea" and performed a patent search. But disappointingly, I found out I wasn't the only one trying to solve this problem - it's an age-old problem. My idea was surprisingly similar to other ones I saw. But even with all the other prior patents, I realized there still wasn't a simple or convenient solution on the market. Months later, a very simple concept started to emerge. It consisted of a very flat and flexible, spring-loaded sliding-lock with a user-friendly thumb-button. The system could be built right into a strap's end-piece. Of course, it was much easier to conceive it than it was to actually execute it. I experimented with many materials and hand-formed many springs to get the final version to work just right. After lots of tweaking, there it was; the basic Lock-It® as you see it now. It worked beyond my expectations. In July of 2007, I filed for a patent and had our first success at the Dallas Guitar Show in April of 2008. Since then, my design has been validated by many guitarists from around the world. I hope everyone gets to discover the powerful convenience & security Lock-It® straps offer. Thank you for showing interest in our product.
~ Chris Perrotta
Inventor & Founder: Lock-It® Guitar Straps
- featuring Slide-Lock TechnologyTM |
