El Cheapo strap-o

All cooped up at home & bent on trying - so I ordered this from a popular China-based online store. It's less than $5 plus shipping. 

It doesn't feel like a guitar strap. By this I mean to imply that it's like getting a spare utilitarian messenger bag strap. You can somehow feel the difference. It's also very thin, threatening to scratch or tear once in contact with any sharp, pointed object. The thin material also means that the buckle doesn't stay put & moves easily. Moving on to the strap ends, these are by no means leather. The material is rubbery, very similar to those faux leather belts sold at the local night markets but much thinner. As you can see there, the slit stretches easily & won't retain form. 

If you can help it, refrain from buying such accessories online, especially those listed for dirt cheap. There are very affordable guitar straps sold in the local stores here which are also offered online. These don't cost much either but if you choose to skimp on essentials like a strap, you know that your instrument would suffer along the way. By the looks of it, this strap of mine might give way soon. There's a very good reason why leather or compound leather is used for strap ends; elasticity matters. 

Covid FS

SV Guitars are still offering some awesome online deals for us who are cooped up at home. Just head over to their website to know what's offered from time to time. They are also keeping up with the delivery schedule - thumb up to that. Please understand the 5 days - 1 week fulfilment leeway for all online orders. Remember folks, stay home.

From nearby (sort of)

I've been buying stuff online mainly from State-side. So it's high time I try buying something from a 'nearby' store for a change. 

Nothing fancy, just some spare parts. The objective- to test reliability from merchants who are less conversant in English. It was a risky affair to say the least because the communication from the check out time till final payment was based on translation. However, we should not harbour adverse expectations from people whose lingua franca differ from ours. It's a human consideration & should be an exercise in trust more than anything else. So here's another adventure in buying stuff online & the reduction of domestic reliance.

Received

Bought this online since there was free shipping offered. Sometimes, it's just more prudent doing so & save the hassle of travelling down town to grab strings, provided you know what you want & don't mind a little shipping mishap along the way. This arrived crushed but the strings were in good order, of course 👌

Gesture

Sometimes, the biggest gesture comes from the little guys; strings&beyond is an online guitar accessories store & the reason I popped by- pick hunting. I purchased a coconut shell pick you see here & the note included there (on the DO) just made my day.

So here's a salute to all the SMEs out there- you guys make the difference!

Poll: Online shopping experience

Thanks everyone, for taking part in this poll :-)

It's the age of the internet, many of us get what we want online especially when we can't get them from the stores here. Online shopping means, we can do it from the comfort of home & whatever was bought would be delivered to the doorstep- bliss. However, there are some people who would rather NOT make any online transactions for the fear of a fraudulent engagements. Since we have the power to check things out, we could always look up the list of reputable online stores. Either that or make time to ask fellow enthusiasts online. Chances are, they are more than happy to share the encounters.

With reference to this poll, we see that many of us had a satisfactory experience when buying stuff online. In fact, only 5% expressed foul episodes which implies that sellers/ online stores are counting on reputation to get the business going so they have to keep up the positive goodwill or suffer a cyber death. More interestingly, there is a camp of players who prefer checking things out personally for a 'real' shopping experience. It's worth the trouble, they say, since we can avoid paying for a lemon & the painful entailment of a refund or subsequent compensation. We note that this shopping philosophy isn't about cyber trust but I would say it's an old school way of getting things for ourselves. It's not a bad preference, certainly not, just a personal take on how things should be acquired.