Anthology Gear Leather Strap

Sidivan

Fractal Fanatic
I recently acquired the 2" "Straight Up" style leather strap from Home Page | Leather Guitar Straps, Gig Bags for Musicians | Anthology Gear Wear. This was very much a curiosity purchase for me as I've been reading about leather straps for years and just never bought into the hype. Some high-end straps are going for several hundred dollars and at that point, the strap better feel like the stay puff marshmallow man is hugging my shoulder. I've played a dozen or so gigs with the strap and after 10+ years using a standard Fort Bryan nylon strap with leather ends, I'm still on the fence about weather this was a worthwhile purchase or not.

The anthology strap is soft, padded, and feels great. The quality is stunning. The downside is, because it's leather, it's much heavier than my previous strap and it's hot as hell. I attempted to use several other cheaper leather straps over the years and this is absolutely the best one (the other ones didn't even last a whole gig before I took them off). At the end of the day, I do really like the strap, but I don't know if I like it $100 more than my good ol' cheapo Fort Bryan. Two people have commented on how awesome it looks though, which I guess is something when you're trying to be a rockstar.

I did buy another item, the compact leather wallet, and that thing is amazing. WELL worth the money compared to my old wallet.
 
Oof... nice, but yeah, they're pricey
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I don't go for all the fancy ones and I'd choose the straight up one if I had to, but even then, the decent quality, £25 plain one I've had for a decade and more has served me well and shows no signs of wear really
 
Wow those are nice looking straps. I really like the Overland in carbon black but a $150 for a strap is rather pricy. I still have my $30 3' wide black leather I bought from GC 7 years in still going.
 
Scott, your review was what made me decide to try Anthology. They're the cheapest of the high end strap market and that review was enough for me to take a chance.
 
DSL straps offer wireless pouches with their leather straps. Great straps too. And they come with a little leather keyring pick holder.
 
It'd be nice to see an option for an integrated wireless pouch.

That would be awesome! Hmm... I'm going to email them and see. They make pick holders that attach to their straps, so I'm sure a pouch wouldn't be too tough.
 
I want to be absolutely clear here that the Anthology straps are high-quality leather. Where I'm on the fence is whether a leather strap in general is better than my $8 nylon strap. What pushed me to get a new strap is after a decade of gigging, my good ol' Fort Bryan strap is starting to bunch up where it attaches to the leather end (the leather hole is stretching). Here's my old strap: Amazon.com: Fort Bryan RG Ranger Mainline Nylon Guitar Strap, Black: Musical Instruments

I'm sure the Moody straps are great too, but $145 for a straight black one with no design... come on now.
 
It'd be nice to see an option for an integrated wireless pouch.

Brian, the owner, probably would if you asked him. He's very easy to work with. I own two straps from him. Here's one with my LP:
 

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I have the 4" Moody plain black leather strap and it is so nice! Worth it.. The wider the strap the greater the weight dispersion of your instrument.
 
Brian, the owner, probably would if you asked him. He's very easy to work with. I own two straps from him. Here's one with my LP:

That is pretty hot. Love the alumitones in the guitar too! I'm surprised they put the inscription on the face of the strap. I thought their FAQ's said they don't do that because they felt it detracts from the design of the strap.
 
That is pretty hot. Love the alumitones in the guitar too! I'm surprised they put the inscription on the face of the strap. I thought their FAQ's said they don't do that because they felt it detracts from the design of the strap.

It was a special request. Brian figured that it would hold up fine with the carbon black finish. He was right. :)
 
I recently got a strap from Brookwood Leather. The strap was made to my specifications. It includes a strip down the middle of the lower half of the strap to hold two wireless transmitters. The length is non-adjustable. It was cut-to-size just for me. This strap is in a class of its own. It can't be compared to other commercially available straps... and as such, it came at a custom price which I found very reasonable given the time Bob and I spent on the phone and exchanging sketches though email.

The strap is very comfortable... but I will say this... prior to having this strap I used a Neotech neoprene strap for about 8 years. A neoprene strap has 'give' to it. A leather strap conforms, but it doesn't give- not like the neoprene. So, if you want a strap that looks fantastic and conforms then look into a nice leather strap. If comfort is your main priority then you could save about $100 or more by going with a neoprene strap.
 
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