What Your Strap Length Says About You

Which do you identify most with?

  • knuckle dragger

    Votes: 3 0.7%
  • low rider

    Votes: 56 12.4%
  • middle man

    Votes: 218 48.2%
  • obeyer

    Votes: 132 29.2%
  • folkie

    Votes: 24 5.3%
  • high tower

    Votes: 19 4.2%

  • Total voters
    452
Closest to Obeyer, because at the end of the day, it's a musical instrument. Getting props from teens for kewl strap length has never been a goal (I started playng bass at 27).

Rock really did a number on ergonomics and literacy.
 
SLOR Live.jpg

This is "middle man", right?
 
I probably land somewhere between middle man and low rider. It's easy enough for me to keep my wrists straight, my beer belly doesn't get in the way, it feel comfortable there, etc. if I go much higher I can't get my right wrist straight and if I go lower it's hard to play for my fretting hand.
 
In my 20's, low rider - at my height, finding straps long enough was a challenge. Every decade, up half an inch of so. Now squarely a middle man. And I'm a bit shorter. Not so hard to find straps anymore.

One thing I've noticed is, if you play a leather strap long enough, it does stretch. You have to hike it up at some point, or you regress to a lower playing position.
 
Usually low rider, often middle man (I have about 4 holes in each strap and often change position during sets). I often like to play with the neck angled upwards and pluck the strings near or over the neck like an upright, so even when the bass is hanging low my right arm is not really extended very far.