2009 TDPRI Giveaway Winners List is available HERE

ganzua · December 2nd, 2007, 10:21 AM

I know this is question is somehow stupid, but where did Bruce Springsteen get his conchos guitar strap and where can you get one now?

DavidE · December 2nd, 2007, 01:49 PM

Depends on which one you're talking about. Sometime before the TOL tour he acquired a 2" wide black leather strap with conchos that was purchased from a shop. I know this because both Nacho and I both coincidentally purchased the exact same strap at virtually the same time (mine in CA and his in Boston) and it is still the favorite one for us both to this day! He had at least one of them and Nils also had one on a Strat during that tour. It was probably something made by a small manufacturer long since out of business. But the ones you're probably talking about are the wider, tooled-leather straps he continues to use on and off today. According to his long time tech Phil Petillo those are hand made by a local craftsman (whatever that means). They would not be very difficult to reproduce if you visit a local saddle shop or some other leather craftsman in your area.

cheers

0le FUZZY · December 2nd, 2007, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganzua

I know this is question is somehow stupid, but where did Bruce Springsteen get his conchos guitar strap and where can you get one now?

...Amen (tew the first part)!

WallyArms · December 2nd, 2007, 03:44 PM

Levy's makes a couple of different ones - Musicians Friend sells them.

ganzua · December 2nd, 2007, 06:29 PM

Thanks for the answers DavidE and WallyArms (no thanks to 0le FUZZY!

)

Besides I'd like to get one for me, I wrote a report on Bruce Springsteen's Esquire which was based on information extracted from TDPRI, and the only thing missed was details on his strap.

ganzua · December 3rd, 2007, 10:03 AM

This shop http://www.guitarstrap.com/ claims to have sold a strap to Bruce Springsteen and shows some hand written notes of the sale as probe; http://www.guitarstrap.com/famous.htm ...but the web looks like a scam, I don't know what to think.

hankseiz · December 3rd, 2007, 04:41 PM

Hi ganzua. Those straps are not difficult to make. The hand-tooled leather aspect is an art I've yet to learn...but you can take an "off the rack" leather strap and basically just decorate it into a pretty sharp looking strap. You need a couple tools, a concho belt and a guitar strap or simple leather strap and attach them together with studs or chicago screws. I can post some pictures here of concho straps I've made for myself if you're interested. Depending on the size and composition of the conchos, it can be a heavy strap, which I happen to like the feel of. And it's nice using a unique strap you made yourself. I bet there's others here who made their own too. Best, hank.

hankseiz · December 3rd, 2007, 04:44 PM

double post

ganzua · December 3rd, 2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hankseiz

Hi ganzua. Those straps are not difficult to make. The hand-tooled leather aspect is an art I've yet to learn...but you can take an "off the rack" leather strap and basically just decorate it into a pretty sharp looking strap. You need a couple tools, a concho belt and a guitar strap or simple leather strap and attach them together with studs or chicago screws. I can post some pictures here of concho straps I've made for myself if you're interested. Depending on the size and composition of the conchos, it can be a heavy strap, which I happen to like the feel of. And it's nice using a unique strap you made yourself. I bet there's others here who made their own too. Best, hank.

Hi hankseiz! Thanks for your post

I've never ever worked with leather so I don't think I'll give the "do it your self" step

Besides the fact that I'm a piece of clumsy with this kind of things the result could be disastrous!

Telehackster · July 31st, 2008, 09:32 PM

Uh-oh: You might want to read this from the top of the forum page.

jegenes · July 14th, 2009, 06:15 PM

weird that I stumbled into this post. This will sound even weirder, but I was the one who made those 2 black concho straps. I was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and making saddles and all kinds of fancy leatherwork. Got a call from his people that he'd seen my work and wanted a couple of straps, so I did them. As I remember, they were 3, or 3 1/2 inches wide. Flower carving with wild roses on them. Fully lined and padded, which was a considerable problem with all those conchos attached. If you flip the strap over you won't see any screws or rivets for the conchos, as I covered them with the lining and the padding. The lining was calf skin and was fully carved, as well, although only Bruce sees that part [grin].
Anyway, not trying to gloat here, but this thread brought back some memories. Not making saddles anymore, and now living in New Zealand, but that's another story. Never did get to meet Bruce in person, but did get some kind words from him about those guitar straps.
--john

brewwagon · July 14th, 2009, 07:35 PM

now that is a cool story

small world

welcome

bw

Joe-Bob · July 14th, 2009, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jegenes

Not making saddles anymore, and now living in New Zealand, but that's another story.
--john

OK, John. How did you get from Santa Fe to New Zealand?

Start typing....and welcome to the TDPRI.

DruWhitefeather · October 13th, 2009, 02:39 PM

Lets clear this up! There are two concho straps out there in pictures of Bruce. One is a all oval concho strap that is around 3" wide and the second is Round & Oval strap that Is 2" wide with 1/2 d-rings at the ends. I made the 2" one. It is on my website style G. It's the same one I have made for Richie Sambora, Nick Mars, Marus Miller, Steve Miller and Bruce Springsteen. Some had laced edges. Bruces did'nt. I made Bruces straps sometime before I went to work a Fender Custom Shop. I do not know how he got the first one. I was selling to Music stores then. I made three more for him. I met him at A&M studios in Hollywood at a rehearal.
There are alot of people out there that has copied my work. I have have straps on the road of over twenty years. There still holding up.
I hope this information helps. If anyone has any question please email me.
Dru@druwhitefeather.com
Thanks,
Dru WhiteFeather

ravindave_3600 · October 15th, 2009, 06:34 PM

CONTROVERSY! MYSTERY! CONVERSATION!

So, Jegenes or DruWhitefeather? New Zealand or the Bay Area? Who do we believe?

The only way to say for sure is to have each of you make me one, and I'll pronounce a winner. Get me your contact information and I'll give you my address so you can send it along. 54" should be sufficient, thanks.

Alamo · October 16th, 2009, 10:32 AM

Cool, a concho guitar strap shoot out.
I'll say the opposite of what Ravindave says if you two only send me some samples

musicalmartin · October 16th, 2009, 10:48 AM

This is a strapping good yarn ,chaps .

ravindave_3600 · October 16th, 2009, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alamo

Cool, a concho guitar strap shoot out.
I'll say the opposite of what Ravindave says if you two only send me some samples

That's good thinking, and a great way to make everyone happy and everyone angry. We could be like the BCS: "Bring Concho Straps".

david_lewis93 · October 16th, 2009, 02:22 PM

shucks I bought a 3" leather strap and some conchos at the local scooter(motorcycle)shop and put them on my selfe .Total cost about 35.00 and I got what I wanted in the deal.And to stay in the proper threading,,,it fits my Squier tele perfectly too.

Tonemonkey · October 16th, 2009, 03:53 PM

What's a concho? I know what a concha is!

jegenes · October 17th, 2009, 10:32 AM

sorry, didn't mean to start anything here, and don't want to make a big deal of it. And to Dru, I assure you that I didn't copy your work. aside from being a pro musician all my life, I was a saddlemaker for many years and took a lot of pride in my work.
as for moving to new zealand, well, that's a long story that I won't go into. suffice it to say it was a good move and I'm happy here. Got to visit Santa Fe a few months ago and play music with old friends again, though.
I'll try to post some saddle pics, just to show you that I do, in fact, know how to make leathergoods and am not just some wanker. Oh, and I'm a longtime Tele player, through a Fender Deluxe. Also play pedal steel and a bunch of other instruments. Sorry I don't have access right now to any of the straps I made for Bruce, but here are some leather pics.

--j

ravindave_3600 · October 18th, 2009, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tonemonkey

What's a concho? I know what a concha is!

How about some conch salad?

Jegenes, that's some good looking leather. If you were still in the USA I'd have you make something for me!

Mark N · November 6th, 2009, 09:13 PM

Here's the one's I just got tonight from Dru Whitefeather, great straps! Very Very comfy and super cool! I am in love! But I can't have em back til Christmas, wife says so!

Groovey Records · November 6th, 2009, 09:21 PM

My friend OTAYPANKY makes some nice custom leather straps

he is here at TDPRI

blakktode · November 7th, 2009, 08:39 AM

Those straps are pretty sweet Mark.

Could I ask what Dru charges for one of those ?

blakktode · November 7th, 2009, 08:41 AM

...'cause I'd like to put them on a Tele...

(to make this an OFFICIAL Tele post)

Lostheart · November 7th, 2009, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark N

Here's the one's I just got tonight from Dru Whitefeather, great straps! Very Very comfy and super cool! I am in love! But I can't have em back til Christmas, wife says so!

Nice! I always wanted one of those back in the days but frankly - and it's just MHO - nowadays they look too 1980's for me.
I have seen many photos from around 1992/1993 where Bruce used those plain leather/Concho straps on all of his Teles, but there's this other one you see in many promo shots with a floral pattern and some super-fancy looking conchos.

Is this the one made by John or by Dru?

Can both guys please chime in?!?

allen st. john · November 7th, 2009, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blakktode

...'cause I'd like to put them on a Tele...

(to make this an OFFICIAL Tele post)

Dru has a website: druwhitefeathter.com and this seems to be the Style G strap.
I think it was about $90, which seems very reasonable for work of that quality.

Mark N · November 7th, 2009, 10:05 AM

you are right allen, that is style "G" on the website...Lostheart, I have seen those promo shots with the floral design....yup, kinda 80's but I don't care. I want to Thank Dru publicly for his time and great work!

December 2nd, 2007, 10:21 AM	#1 (permalink)
ganzua Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: nowh Posts: 378	Springsteen conchos strap I know this is question is somehow stupid, but where did Bruce Springsteen get his conchos guitar strap and where can you get one now?

December 2nd, 2007, 03:44 PM	#4 (permalink)
WallyArms Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: TN Posts: 1,067	Levy's makes a couple of different ones - Musicians Friend sells them. __________________ Save The Hymnals!

December 3rd, 2007, 04:44 PM	#8 (permalink)
hankseiz Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Clifton, NJ Posts: 186	double post Last edited by hankseiz; December 3rd, 2007 at 04:45 PM. Reason: double post

July 14th, 2009, 07:35 PM	#12 (permalink)
brewwagon Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: the delta bc Posts: 1,054	leather work now that is a cool story small world welcome bw __________________ Music an art form whose medium is sound.

October 15th, 2009, 06:34 PM	#15 (permalink)
ravindave_3600 Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Boise, USA Posts: 1,230	CONTROVERSY! MYSTERY! CONVERSATION! So, Jegenes or DruWhitefeather? New Zealand or the Bay Area? Who do we believe? The only way to say for sure is to have each of you make me one, and I'll pronounce a winner. Get me your contact information and I'll give you my address so you can send it along. 54" should be sufficient, thanks. __________________ Want my guitar to sound like BBQ tastes!

December 2nd, 2007, 01:49 PM	#2 (permalink)
DavidE Tele-Meister Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 152	Depends on which one you're talking about. Sometime before the TOL tour he acquired a 2" wide black leather strap with conchos that was purchased from a shop. I know this because both Nacho and I both coincidentally purchased the exact same strap at virtually the same time (mine in CA and his in Boston) and it is still the favorite one for us both to this day! He had at least one of them and Nils also had one on a Strat during that tour. It was probably something made by a small manufacturer long since out of business. But the ones you're probably talking about are the wider, tooled-leather straps he continues to use on and off today. According to his long time tech Phil Petillo those are hand made by a local craftsman (whatever that means). They would not be very difficult to reproduce if you visit a local saddle shop or some other leather craftsman in your area. cheers

December 2nd, 2007, 06:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
ganzua Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: nowh Posts: 378	Thanks for the answers DavidE and WallyArms (no thanks to 0le FUZZY! ) Besides I'd like to get one for me, I wrote a report on Bruce Springsteen's Esquire which was based on information extracted from TDPRI, and the only thing missed was details on his strap.

December 3rd, 2007, 10:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
ganzua Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: nowh Posts: 378	This shop http://www.guitarstrap.com/ claims to have sold a strap to Bruce Springsteen and shows some hand written notes of the sale as probe; http://www.guitarstrap.com/famous.htm ...but the web looks like a scam, I don't know what to think.

December 3rd, 2007, 04:41 PM	#7 (permalink)
hankseiz Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Clifton, NJ Posts: 186	Hi ganzua. Those straps are not difficult to make. The hand-tooled leather aspect is an art I've yet to learn...but you can take an "off the rack" leather strap and basically just decorate it into a pretty sharp looking strap. You need a couple tools, a concho belt and a guitar strap or simple leather strap and attach them together with studs or chicago screws. I can post some pictures here of concho straps I've made for myself if you're interested. Depending on the size and composition of the conchos, it can be a heavy strap, which I happen to like the feel of. And it's nice using a unique strap you made yourself. I bet there's others here who made their own too. Best, hank.

July 31st, 2008, 09:32 PM	#10 (permalink)
Telehackster Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Texas Age: 43 Posts: 1,163	Uh-oh: You might want to read this from the top of the forum page.

July 14th, 2009, 06:15 PM	#11 (permalink)
jegenes NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 2	weird that I stumbled into this post. This will sound even weirder, but I was the one who made those 2 black concho straps. I was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and making saddles and all kinds of fancy leatherwork. Got a call from his people that he'd seen my work and wanted a couple of straps, so I did them. As I remember, they were 3, or 3 1/2 inches wide. Flower carving with wild roses on them. Fully lined and padded, which was a considerable problem with all those conchos attached. If you flip the strap over you won't see any screws or rivets for the conchos, as I covered them with the lining and the padding. The lining was calf skin and was fully carved, as well, although only Bruce sees that part [grin]. Anyway, not trying to gloat here, but this thread brought back some memories. Not making saddles anymore, and now living in New Zealand, but that's another story. Never did get to meet Bruce in person, but did get some kind words from him about those guitar straps. --john

October 13th, 2009, 02:39 PM	#14 (permalink)
DruWhitefeather NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: bay area cal Posts: 1	Lets clear this up! There are two concho straps out there in pictures of Bruce. One is a all oval concho strap that is around 3" wide and the second is Round & Oval strap that Is 2" wide with 1/2 d-rings at the ends. I made the 2" one. It is on my website style G. It's the same one I have made for Richie Sambora, Nick Mars, Marus Miller, Steve Miller and Bruce Springsteen. Some had laced edges. Bruces did'nt. I made Bruces straps sometime before I went to work a Fender Custom Shop. I do not know how he got the first one. I was selling to Music stores then. I made three more for him. I met him at A&M studios in Hollywood at a rehearal. There are alot of people out there that has copied my work. I have have straps on the road of over twenty years. There still holding up. I hope this information helps. If anyone has any question please email me. Dru@druwhitefeather.com Thanks, Dru WhiteFeather

October 16th, 2009, 10:32 AM	#16 (permalink)
Alamo Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Age: 52 Posts: 1,580	Cool, a concho guitar strap shoot out. I'll say the opposite of what Ravindave says if you two only send me some samples __________________ ----------------------------------------------------- Timebandits-Berlin

October 16th, 2009, 10:48 AM	#17 (permalink)
musicalmartin Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Age: 61 Posts: 1,150	This is a strapping good yarn ,chaps .

October 16th, 2009, 03:53 PM	#20 (permalink)
Tonemonkey Tele-Holic Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Gibraltar !! Age: 43 Posts: 764	What's a concho? I know what a concha is! __________________ It doesn't mean a thing if it doesn't have that twing!

November 6th, 2009, 09:13 PM	#23 (permalink)
Mark N Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Woodstock, NB, Canada Age: 38 Posts: 923 9 Photos	Here's the one's I just got tonight from Dru Whitefeather, great straps! Very Very comfy and super cool! I am in love! But I can't have em back til Christmas, wife says so!

November 6th, 2009, 09:21 PM	#24 (permalink)
Groovey Records Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Desolation Row Posts: 1,403	My friend OTAYPANKY makes some nice custom leather straps he is here at TDPRI __________________ Yeah but you should of heard what I was trying to play-Thelonius Monk EnJoY ThE MuSiC GrooVey RecOrds

November 7th, 2009, 08:39 AM	#25 (permalink)
blakktode TDPRI Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 30	Those straps are pretty sweet Mark. Could I ask what Dru charges for one of those ?

November 7th, 2009, 08:41 AM	#26 (permalink)
blakktode TDPRI Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 30	...'cause I'd like to put them on a Tele... (to make this an OFFICIAL Tele post)

November 7th, 2009, 10:05 AM	#29 (permalink)
Mark N Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Woodstock, NB, Canada Age: 38 Posts: 923 9 Photos	you are right allen, that is style "G" on the website...Lostheart, I have seen those promo shots with the floral design....yup, kinda 80's but I don't care. I want to Thank Dru publicly for his time and great work!

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