Guitar Straps on Builders Edition - not workable?

[RyanR]

Am I missing something?  I've recently purchased my first Taylor ever.  Actually two Taylors: A K14ce Builders Edition and a 517 Builder's Edition.  Fantastic guitars.  Sound great, feel great.  Overall I'm really happy with them.  They ain't going back.

But one thing bugs me about both of them - what appears (to me) to be unusable guitar strap buttons on the back.  I've tried straps with both guitars connected to those buttons and they are so unbalanced that they are unusable.  Now if I thread something above the nut then they work just fine.  So I can use a strap with them (and I have). 

But, still, if Taylor are going to put strap buttons on the back there I assume they intend people so use them.  I have a Martin OMC with a strap button on the heel and it works fine.  Just not these Taylors.

So I must be missing something. What am I missing?  Is there some "proper" way to use those strap buttons?

[Rhusty]

I put schaller strap locks on my 717 and it made a huge improvement.
I agree with you, I hate it being on the back, my SG is the same way, and it makes for a very unbalanced instrument

[RyanR]

Rhusty

Cool.  But how did the new strap locks help?  I mean they keep it from falling off but don't change the balance.  Or did you move the location of the strap lock?

Ryan

[Hippy]

My advice is to unscrew the button & toss it in the garbage. 
I have always attached my straps above the nut (on acoustic guitars).
 

[RyanR]

Hippy,

I'm with you.  I probably will need to toss those buttons on the back.

I do have other guitars that work fine with the back buttons, so it is all in the design.  Taylor is so good with design that I always think that every item on every Taylor guitar is thought through. 

I hate to say it but I think Taylor stuck buttons on for marketing purposes; because people "expected" them.  Not 'cause they are to be used.  Very unlike Taylor who (usually) cares about the details.  Oh well, in the end it is a minor thing.  The guitars still play fine!

[Frettingflyer]

Andy Powers said he moved the button from the heel block to enable easier access to the upper frets on the BE guitars. I have used mine a few times without trouble, but usually play seated anyway. There would be no issue with moving it to the “normal” Taylor location if it doesn’t interfere with your playing style, or above the nut works too:)

[Shutterbug]

It's surprising to me that he would make that change to the guitars. Surely he knows that the guitars would be unbalanced as a result, wouldn't he?

[DennisG]

I was concerned back at the beginning when I first got my K14-BE, but after playing my first gig, I realized that my forearm holds the guitar close to my body.  I'd still rather have the strap pin on the heel, but having it on the back turned out to be not as big a deal as I thought it would be.

[RyanR]

Dennis,

Good to hear those buttons work for someone.  I think this falls into the "different strokes" category.  For some reason I had a lot of trouble with the button on my K14ce, but no problem with a strap round the neck.

By the way I did a search and found a post about the Taylor strap buttons.  Apparently one of the Taylor product people said in an interview that the Grand Pacific was designed without a strap button.  But when they started circulating the prototypes around the time of NAAM they got a ton of feedback that people felt it ought to have one. So they quickly reworked the 300 early copies they had with a button and then added it into the production models.

That explains a lot, at least for my 517.

[Shutterbug]

A strap button on the back of a guitar is almost a deal killer for me...

[Edward]

The original location in which Taylor had installed the strap button is, and continues to be, the best position for balance of the guitar, and has never once —in decades of playing— interfered with accessing the upper frets in my use.  Taylor putting the strap here was far and away better than the conventional location that I've had on other guitars of old  This change by the factory is, yet again, a change the is not for the better in my experience, despite what Andy claims. Just because he says so doesn’t mean it is so. 

Ryan, you are not missing anything; it is a poor decision by Taylor IMO.  Relocate the pin to the original Taylor location and you’ll be good to go.  A good tech could fill and color match the hole pretty well, but even better, you'll be happier

Edward