At the end of last year, I wrote about the Lightning Guitar Picks by PLB World. The lightning guitar pick is a cool novelty item. The main product that PLB World is trying to get people to notice however is their Perfect Lock Bolt guitar strap locks. It’s not a novelty. It’s seriously trying to make your guitar safer while you’re playing it.
I’m lucky enough to have received one of the Perfect Lock Bolt guitar strap locks and I like them. I have a feeling I won’t be dropping my Ibanez RX-20 anytime soon. Let’s delve deeper.
The concept of the perfect lock bolt is a dual thread, double helix nut system to do away with any loosening of the standard single nut approach to any bolt—now including those used in guitar strap systems. In a standard bolt environment, that looks like this.
Two nuts. But they’re different—beyond the obvious colour differences in the image above. The thread in each nut is different. One is a coarse thread and the other is a fine thread. These grip the bolt slightly differently and when tightened against each other act as an impressive locking mechanism.
Let’s look at what that looks like on one of my guitars. It’s time to replace a standard strap pin on one of my Ibanez guitars.
Looking at that, it was due for a change anyway. To be fair though, that strap pin is almost half my age—and I’m old. Time for something new and improved.
Yay! They sent me a black one!
You’ll notice the dual nuts on the strap lock pin. Slightly different thicknesses and different threads. One thing I liked was that they sent different screw lengths for the guitar. I’ve purchased other strap locks systems before that only came with the shorter screw and that failed to work on one of my guitars.
Time to get installing.
So much better already. The guitar is now ready for a guitar strap to lock on. Now it was time to get the strap ready.
Ready for action. Locking the first nut against the leather strap was a simple and regular process. Locking the second nut against the first nut certainly gave the impression that this bolt is now going nowhere.
The rest of the process is normal for any guitarist who has used a strap lock system before. Connect strap to guitar and play guitar with the confidence that while walking around playing guitar, this guitar is sticking with you.
There you have it. I’m playing this guitar with greater confidence when standing now. I certainly haven’t noticed any loosening since installing this a week or two ago. It’s going to be interesting to see how this product does. It’s being displayed at the upcoming NAMM Show in Los Angeles. If you’re in the area, take a look.
I just got the PLB locking strap button at the 2020 NAMM show. It has a very interesting Bolt technology getting introduced to the guitar industry. It is shake proof and durable. I intend to get a set for all my guitars. What is great about the PBL is they come in many colors and can be switched out with just a push of a button. Very handy and fashionable, with a great safety feature to prevent your guitar or bass form becoming detached and falling to the ground. I highly recommend this product.