TAN LINES

Many of us regard straps as a bit of an afterthought, but to find one that matches the quality of a custom or vintage guitar, Rod Boyes of Pinegrove Leather can help

- Jamie Dickson

It’s amazing how much information just drifts past us in everyday life. For example, how many times have you heard the phrase ‘full-grain leather’ in association with high-end goods? Probably quite a few. But do you know what it means? And why might you want leather that’s worn close to the skin to be vegetable-dyed instead of chrome-dyed like most commercial leather? These sorts of questions are music to the ears of Rod Boyes, owner of Pinegrove Leather, because he spends his days thinking about little else. Based in Church Stretton in Shropshire, Pinegrove makes some of the most tactile, supple and stylish straps you can find anywhere, so we joined him to find out why ‘how’s it hanging?’ is a more important question than you might think.

Looking at your range, it’s obvious that width is one of the main factors in choosing a strap. For example, you do very narrow vintage-style straps with a sliding pad but also super-wide padded straps.

“We do some very narrow straps, actually, and they’re favoured by a few people like Sam Morrow and Jon Boden [of Bellowhead] who’s quite a well-known folk musician in this country. They both like to use the narrow straps and wear them with something like a leather jacket and then the leather jacket is spreading the load – but they just like the cool, minimalist look that [that strap] gives, really. It does look cool when you see them on stage.

“The pads with the shoulder straps, which you might call ‘vintage straps’, some people call ‘rockabilly straps’. They are obviously very traditional and in demand with rockabilly players and fans of early Beatles, Buddy Holly and so on. So a lot of people who play that old music, they like that style. They like to project that image, of course, because you’re on stage, you’re performing and you’ve got an image to project.