HOW TO KEEP YOUR $$$$ GUITAR FROM MEETING AN UNTIMELY DEMISE 
From Schaller straplocks, to various other brands and brain-dead home remedies.

If you own a guitar, it probably has buttons on it to attach a strap.
Electric guitars tend to be heavier, and more often played while standing so the strap becomes neccessary.
Different people like different straps, often as an extension of their personality or playing style - not to mention they may play professionally and move around alot while doing so.

Sooner or later an issue arises forcing some thought to be given to all the various ways (good and bad) that a strap is attached to your baby. If your guitar is worth anything to either you or a collector, you should do everything possible to ensure it doesn't take an unanticipated dive at the floor.
Leave that stuff for Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend or Paul Stanley.

So, here's $.02 from a guy who had a $3,000 Gibson Les Paul hit the floor and survive.....
It will never happen again, I can assure you. If it did, I would never be so lucky a second time. 
Every time I hear a discussion about strap pins, strap locks, and the whole gamut of ideas how best to fix any problems associated with them, I just shake my head in wonder and amazement.

I can't afford $20 locks from Schaller or Dunlop for my $2,000 guitar.
The most important thing is convenience.
Anything that is a hassle to put on the guitar will result in a fall because you aren't paying attention, or just can't be bothered with it. A strap that is easily taken off the guitar when put in its case and holds the guitar securely when you're playing it is the only way to go.
If spending $15 on a set of strap locks is too expensive for someone who already spent anywhere from $1000 to... well, the sky's the limit..., they really need to take a look at their priorities in life because I can't imagine how they're managing their finances in general.
It's not my intent to antagonize or insult those who choose to use other methods, but I have to call into question their judgement and motivation. If it's simply because that's what works for them and don't feel the need to change it, I will call them lazy or uninformed. Either you don't know (so read carefully!) or you just don't think it's a big deal.
What's your guitar worth?
That $15 insurance policy for an instrument that costs thousands of dollars is NOT too big of an investment.


Grolsch gaskets or metal washers.
In a world of clever people from all disciplines of industry, recreation, and alcohol consumption, there are a million ways to "fix" the problem of how to best attach your strap to your guitar.
Many guitars are well-worn, weather-beaten and well used tools of the trade and have survived years that way.
Some are the pride of a first time buyer, while others are another valuable piece in a collection.

The rock and roll guys play hard and live hard, so their gear often takes a beating. Look at pics and live footage of them onstage and you'll see threaded eyebolts screwed into the guitar with a 3/8" logging chain strap, for example.
The professional or club musician probably does not have a full time guitar tech to set up his latest endorsement pieces shipped from Gibson or whoever, so he will usually not resort to such.
The less than full time pro has to move his own gear in and out every night and make sure nothing gets damaged.
The rest of us regular enthusiast/players likely fall into that category, this brings me full circle to what I started out with...

Where there's good rock and roll, there's usually good beer. Lots of good beer.
Grolsch beer from the Netherlands uses a red rubber washer to seal their bottles. In the wee hours of the morning there are no guitar shops open, and straplocks are a relatively recent development, so years ago sombody found they could slide their strap over the pin and squeeze a Grolsch rubber over it to retain it. I'm guessing there were plenty of them laying around, so the inspiration may not have been terribly profound.
This one has staying power, after all these years many still use this trick. 

Installing Schallers can be so hard!
Okay, I'll make this easy.

DO NOT DRILL THE GUITAR and do not mess up the threads in the holes!!!
Got that?

There's no reason.
I have Schallers on EVERYTHING I've owned over the last 15 years, rarely is a body mod needed.

I'll use the Gibson Les Paul as the example here, it seems to be one of the most common and troublesome.
Do it right and you can use the original Gibson screws and put the original strap buttons back on in the future.
Take a few minutes, and maybe a trip to town for screws, and there will never be an issue.

Seriously, next time you are going near a hardware store pull both the screws out of your Gibson.
Get exact copies, preferably in stainless, be sure the thread pitch is the same.
Buy a handful of faucet washers too, 1/2" diameter. I use Danco buna rubber, no issues with nitro cellulose lacquer. 
Use them in place of the felt washers, I'll explain later.

Cut, grind or do whatever to the new screws to preserve to original ones for future reinstallation.
Put the old ones with the Gibson pins in a ziploc bag in the case, and leave them there.
(Make sure they do not escape bag and move around in the case, terrible finish damage will result.)

You can use the original screws in most cases if a trip to the hardware store doesn't happen.
At any rate, here's a quick rundown of the pointers I give people;

Here we go with the new Schallers.
First thing, compare the screws provided by Schaller to the ones out of your guitar.
Hold them side by side to compare the thread pitch, if they don't match toss them in the trash. DON'T use them!

On a Les Paul, the back or rear pin is usually too small to accept the Gibson screw.
Drill it out on the inside. Put a thin piece of cardboard around it and clamp it in a vise, or a pair of locking pliers.
About 4mm diameter is enough, check the screw fit until the hole is big enough. There's enough metal on the Schaller button to do it, but as with all things go slowly & take your time. If you ruin the Schaller pin, another set for $20 is still cheaper than guitar damage. 
You're not done yet.
On some Gibsons, the screw head from the back pin is too large to fit inside the Schaller head.
Just grind the edge of the head down a little so it will clear.
As an alternative, you can use a countersink bit to get everything nice and tidy. The screw will not be damaged at all. 

To help preserve the wood around the pin, I put small buna rubber faucet washers under the pin instead of felt washers.
There are a couple reasons for this;
First, the screws sit deeper into Schaller buttons than most factory pins, so they would possibly go too far into the body.
Second, It's difficult to tell exactly how tight the screws should be.
Using the stiff buna rubber washers, they will compress only slightly. When it starts to bulge under screw pressure, you have gone far enough. The rubber is stiff enough to prevent bending of the screw, and pliable enough to prevent damage to the finish. 


Once the Schaller pins are cleanly installed the threads inside the body are pristine, and you still have the factory screws with only the slightest grinding on the head to show for it. Nobody will ever notice it. 

Everything original is in the case on most of my guitars.
If they were to someday become valuable I could quickly restore them to original factory condition.

Why drill/butcher your guitar body, when a drill press & 25 minutes will do the job?
The worst that can happen is you'll mess up the button & have to buy a new one.
That's a lot better than going crying to your local luthier.
Do you think he'll give you a break on repair costs because you screwed up?