Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
Getting on my case
My Cordoba FCWE is a thin-bodied acoustic-electric guitar that I use for all my gigs. It came in a form-fitting case that did not have a strap, only a handle. A friend of mine installed a strap, using wood screws. This arrangement worked fine until several months ago, when the screws going into the case holding the upper body started to come out. The interior of the case appears to be made of some kind of soft white foam, not a great thing to anchor in. A guy at the hardware store recommended some kind of glue or epoxy, which I used and did not help. Eventually, the screws came out entirely, and my solution was to drill new screws in a slightly different place. Unfortunately, this only worked for a few months; the strap popped out while I was in the parking lot yesterday.
Different hardware person gave me Plastic Wood to fill the holes and redrill. I did that this morning. It still felt very soft inside, so I don't think it is going to hold very long. Certainly not long-term (although the original arrangement did last 7 years!).
Any ideas as how to get the strap securely on the case? Pictures below.
you need to put something inside the case that the screws go into ..really more like a small nut and bolt with a washer on so as to increase the area inside and not pull through ... but small and covered so as not to scratch the guitar
Miguel, A buddy of my had the same issue with an older case. No strap but he likes it for gigs and travel. He basically drilled out the holes and used bolts, nuts and fender washers to secure the strap attachment points. His case was constructed of chipboard so he had to pull the inner foam liner away from the inside of the case in order to secure the fasteners. Once he had the bolts secured, he filed down any sharp edges of the bolt and re-glued the case lining back in place. Works great now!
Another option is to take it to a luggage repair shop. Usually something like this costs very little since they have all the specialized tools, glues, etc.
Miguel, try Chicago screws. Chicago screws are screw rivets where both parts have rounded heads and the two parts fit together like a rivet except they screw together. You can put Loc-tite on the treads to make them almost permanent. You can find Chicago screws on the internet.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px