The Ligaphone “harness-style” Neck Strap
I am psyched to share this with you all. My first neck strap was a Ray Hyman, it was a war horse and I loved it. In fact, the actual strap wore out before the hook and slide mechanisms! The slide was metal and it eventually just frayed the strap until it was no longer safe to hold my horn. But I got about 30 years out of it so I feel that was fair..lol. I wound up replacing that strap with a standard “student” model. It was fine for a while, though it did not slide particularly well and the poorly designed hook was made of cheap plastic. In a short time the “safety” snapped off and I was left with a precariously open hook on which to hang my beloved Selmer Mark VI - not good.
The busted student strap was fine for teaching, but in the last couple of years I have been playing more and more gigs, and after standing and jamming for a few hours, my neck and back had started to act up a bit. I also found myself being tense with worry that that the horn would fall off the open hook. So I began my search for a new strap about 2 months ago and was surprised to find lots of options available.
I’m mainly interested in comfort, but I am also very fussy about the slide mechanism (it must be easily adjustable and NO string!), and I’m even more particular about the hook (I detest the swivel plastic hooks and dislike the swivel metal hooks even more). I came across a guy named Joe who hand-makes beautiful leather straps designed to alleviate stress on the neck and back. It was an interesting design, but he only uses the standard metal or plastic hooks so I decided to keep searching.
I did find Ray Hyman straps but the metal slide has been replaced with a newer, (and cheaper) plastic version. A few hours later I eventually found the Ligaphone Paris site. They have reeds and ligatures as well as a few different straps, flute caps, and assorted parts for most woodwinds. I was intrigued with their harness strap and once I watched the 11 second video tutorial on the “hook” I was....well, hooked.
I ordered one the next day and 2 weeks later it arrived at my door. Their customer service is top notch and the harness is terrific. There is a small learning curve in getting it on and getting it adjusted comfortably, but in just a few tries it became routine. There is also a fun little trick to connecting the ingeniously designed hook (which looks more like a cork-screw). But once you know the secret, it’s as if you’ve learned the magic password to the Ligaphone club. I’m happy to be a member!