Turn your ukulele over and look at the bottom edge, where the two sides of the body meet. If there is a small round button there, you can use almost any strap made. If there is nothing — and on most ukuleles under $200 there is nothing — your choice narrows to two: hook a strap into the soundhole, or fit a button first.
That is the whole decision. Fabric, pattern and width barely matter next to it, and it is the reason a strap that works perfectly for one player arrives useless for another.
Eyeshot Double J-Hook Ukulele Strap
Two J-hooks clip over the rim of the soundhole and the strap goes over your shoulder like a guitar strap. Nothing to install, nothing to drill, no hardware in the box to lose — it works on a ukulele straight out of its case, in any size from soprano to baritone.
At a glance
| Strap | How it attaches | Needs drilling? | Length | Price band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eyeshot Double J-Hook | Two hooks in the soundhole | No | 33–52″ | ~$16 |
| CLOUDMUSIC Clip-On J-Hook | Hook in the soundhole | No | Adjustable | ~$8–20 |
| D’Addario Eco-Comfort | One rubber hook in the soundhole | No | 22–37″ | ~$35 |
| Eyeshot Tie Strap | Lace round the headstock, pin at the tail | One hole | 29–51″ | ~$14 |
| MUSIC FIRST Vintage Lace | Lace round the headstock, pin at the tail | One hole | Adjustable | ~$17 |
| Rinastore Cotton Linen | Tie round the headstock, button at the tail | One hole | Adjustable | ~$7 |
| Levy’s M19LUKE-BLK | Two strap buttons | Two holes | To 53″ | ~$15 |
The three ways a strap gets onto a ukulele
Hook straps: nothing to install, everything hanging off the soundhole
A hook strap ends in one or two J-shaped hooks that bite over the rim of the soundhole. You lift them in, the strap goes over your shoulder, and you are playing thirty seconds after opening the packet. No hardware, no screwdriver, and nothing about the instrument changes.
What you are accepting is that the entire weight of the ukulele now hangs from the edge of a hole in the soundboard. On a laminate concert uke weighing a pound and a half that is a non-event — the hook pulls downward against the rim, and the kerfing behind it is thicker than the top. It is worth more thought on a thin solid-wood top, on a heavy baritone, and on anything with a finish you care about, because a hard plastic hook rubbing against a glossy soundhole edge will eventually leave a mark.
Which is why the hook material is the spec worth reading, and the pattern is not. Soft rubber or a padded hook spreads the load and cannot scratch. Bare hard plastic on a $9 strap can.
Tie straps: one hole, and the uke sits where you want it
A tie strap — sometimes sold as a “semi-guitar” strap — has a lace or cord at one end that loops around the headstock behind the nut, and a leather tab at the other that goes onto a button at the tail. You need one button, which means one hole drilled into the tail block, and after that the strap carries the instrument the way a guitar strap does.
This is the best-value arrangement on a ukulele that arrived with no buttons at all, and the straps that use it usually ship the tail pin in the box. The trade is that the top anchor sits at the headstock rather than at the neck heel, which pulls the neck up and centres the body more towards the middle of your chest than a two-button strap does. Most players stop noticing within a week; some never get on with it.
Two-button straps: two holes, and then anything fits
Two buttons — one at the tail, one at the bottom of the neck heel — is what a luthier fits and what every guitar strap in the world expects. The load goes into two blocks of solid wood rather than onto a soundboard edge, the ukulele hangs at whatever height you set, and the neck stops tipping forward when you let go. A tenor or baritone that you play standing for an hour deserves this.
It is also the only option that involves putting two holes in an instrument, which is why it is last on most people’s list rather than first. Buttons cost a few dollars; on a solid-wood ukulele, paying a shop twenty to fit them is money well spent.
The five picks
Eyeshot Double J-Hook Ukulele Strap
- Two soundhole hooks
- No drilling
- 1.57″ wide
- 33.3–52.1″
- Leather shoulder pad
- ~$16
Both hooks clip over the soundhole rim and the strap runs over one shoulder, so the ukulele hangs at whatever height the buckle is set to instead of being pinned against your chest. That sounds minor until you have used a short hook strap that leaves the uke up under your chin. The doubled leather pad at the shoulder is the other thing you feel — 1.57 inches of jacquard is wide enough that a tenor stops cutting in.
It fits soprano through baritone because nothing has to line up with anything: the hooks simply need a soundhole. Six patterns are available at the same price, and the strap is the only thing in the box, which is the point.
- Works on any ukulele, unmodified, in under a minute
- Genuine shoulder strap rather than a chest loop
- Padded leather shoulder section
- Fits soprano to baritone
- All the weight sits on the soundhole edge
- Hooks are visible across the soundhole
- Jacquard patterns are loud by design
CLOUDMUSIC Clip-On J-Hook Ukulele Strap
- Soundhole hook
- No drilling
- Around 14 patterns
- Soprano to baritone
- ~$8–20
CLOUDMUSIC has been selling Hawaiian-print uke straps longer than most of the competition and has the ratings to show for it — over a thousand on this listing alone. The clip-on version does the same job as the Eyeshot at a similar price, and the range of patterns is the reason to pick it: roughly fourteen designs, several of which sit well under ten dollars.
Read the colour you are ordering rather than assuming. The cheaper swatches on this listing are narrower and plainer than the flagship prints, which is how the price gets down to single figures, and the flexible J-hook is the same either way.
- Far more patterns than anything else at this price
- Some colourways are half the price of the rest
- Large body of buyer feedback behind it
- Price and width vary between colours on one listing
- Same soundhole-edge load as any hook strap
D’Addario Eco-Comfort Ukulele Strap
- Single soft-rubber hook
- No drilling
- Woven recycled nylon
- 22–37″
- Leather end
- ~$35
One hook, made of soft rubber rather than hard plastic, on a strap woven from recycled bottles with a proper leather end. It is the only no-drill strap here from a brand with a warranty department, and the rubber hook is the part that justifies it — nothing on this strap can scratch a soundhole edge, which is not true of the generic hooks.
The honest problem is the price. At around $35 it costs more than twice the Eyeshot and does the same job on the same instrument, and the 22 to 37 inch adjustment is short enough that the ukulele sits high on the chest rather than at hip level. Buy it because you have a solid-wood ukulele whose soundhole you would rather not experiment on. Do not buy it expecting it to hold the instrument any better.
One thing to watch when you order: the listing carries two different straps under a Style menu, Eco-comfort and Nylon. The rubber hook and the recycled weave are the Eco-comfort option, and it is the dearer of the two. The Nylon one is a plain woven strap.
- Soft rubber hook cannot mark a finish
- Real brand, real materials, real leather end
- Woven from recycled plastic
- Over twice the price of straps that do the same thing
- Short adjustment range holds the uke high
- Single hook, so it is less stable than a double
Eyeshot Tie Strap
- Headstock lace + tail pin
- Tail pin included
- 1.57″ wide
- 28.7–51.2″
- Two picks included
- ~$14
The lace ties around the headstock behind the nut and the other end drops onto a pin at the tail, and the pin is in the box along with a couple of picks. That is the cheapest complete route from a ukulele with no fittings at all to a strap that carries the instrument properly, and it is the best-rated strap on this page by a distance.
Fitting the pin is the whole job, and it takes a pilot hole in the centre of the tail block. If your ukulele already has an endpin — some do, for a pickup jack — you may not need to drill anything. Once it is on, the uke hangs lower and steadier than any hook strap manages, and nothing is resting on the soundboard.
- Tail pin and picks supplied, so nothing else to buy
- Weight goes into the tail block, not the soundhole
- Hangs lower and more stably than a hook strap
- Cheapest of the picks here
- You have to drill one hole, or pay someone to
- Headstock anchor centres the body more than two buttons would
- The lace needs retying if you move it between ukuleles
If you want the same arrangement in something less Hawaiian, the MUSIC FIRST vintage lace strap is cream cotton lace with a leather locking tab and its own pin, at around $17, and the Rinastore cotton linen strap does it in plain country-style cloth for about $7 — though that listing does not say whether the tail button comes with it, so budget for a pair of pins if you go that way.
Levy’s Leathers M19LUKE-BLK
- Two strap buttons
- Genuine leather
- 1/2″ wide
- Adjustable to 53″
- Tri-glide adjuster
- ~$15
Half an inch of black leather with leather pin ends at both ends and a brass tri-glide to set the length. Levy’s have been making straps in Nashville since 1973 and this is the plain one, sized for mandolins and ukuleles rather than cut down from a guitar strap — which matters, because a 2.5-inch guitar strap on a soprano looks and behaves absurd.
Narrow leather is not the choice for a heavy instrument, and on a baritone played standing you will feel the edge. On anything soprano through tenor it disappears, which is the entire idea, and it will outlast every jacquard strap here.
- Real leather, made by a strap company, not a print shop
- Correctly sized for ukuleles rather than a shrunken guitar strap
- Will outlive the instrument
- Needs two buttons already fitted
- Half an inch is narrow under a heavy uke
- Black only
Fitting a strap button
The first button goes at the tail, dead centre on the seam where the two sides of the body meet. There is a solid tail block behind that seam on any decently built ukulele, and that block is what takes the load. Mark the centre, make a pilot hole narrower than the screw’s core so the wood cannot split, and drive the screw by hand — a felt washer under the button stops the metal edge blistering the finish.
The second button, if you want two, goes on the underside of the neck heel rather than on the side of the neck or the upper bout. Under the heel it is hidden, it is screwed into the thickest piece of wood in the instrument, and it holds the neck up instead of letting it dive. Angle the pilot hole so the screw runs up into the heel and cannot break through the other face.
A set of ukulele-sized strap buttons with cushions and screws runs about $8. Guitar buttons are too big and their screws too long, so buy the small ones. And if the ukulele is solid wood, or you have never drilled into an instrument before, a repair shop will do both in ten minutes for around twenty dollars — cheaper than the alternative.
Questions people actually ask
Will a soundhole hook damage my ukulele?
Not on a laminate ukulele used sensibly. The hook pulls straight down against the soundhole rim, and there is kerfing glued behind that rim which is stronger than the top itself. The two things that cause trouble are a hard plastic hook chafing a gloss finish over months, and hanging your forearm’s weight on the strap as well as the instrument’s. A padded or rubber hook removes the first problem entirely.
Do I even need a strap?
Sitting down with a soprano, no. Standing up with anything, yes — because without one your fretting hand is holding the ukulele up as well as fretting, and that is what stops beginners moving cleanly between chords. If your strumming tightens up the moment you stand, this is why.
Can I use a guitar strap on a ukulele?
Only if the uke has two buttons, and it will look wrong. A guitar strap is 2 to 2.5 inches wide, which on a soprano is nearly as wide as the body is deep. Ukulele and mandolin straps run half an inch to about an inch and a half for that reason. It will work; it just will not fit.
Which strap for a soprano?
A hook strap or a tie strap, and keep it narrow. A soprano weighs so little that the strap is there to stop it sliding rather than to carry it, and a wide padded strap on a small body looks like a saddle. Sopranos are also the size most often bought as a first instrument, so they are the ones least likely to have buttons — see our guides to soprano ukuleles and cheap ukuleles.
Where does the strap tie on the headstock?
Behind the nut, in the gap between the nut and the tuners, with the lace under the strings. Not around the tuning pegs, and not over the strings — either will pull the uke out of tune every time the strap moves.
Will a strap fit a pineapple or a thin-body electric uke?
Hook straps need a round soundhole of ordinary size, which pineapples have and most thin-body electro-acoustics do not. If your ukulele has an f-hole, a slot, or no hole at all, a hook strap is out and you are fitting buttons. Thin-body electrics almost always ship with a tail button already, so you are usually one button from a tie strap.
Does a strap in the soundhole change the sound?
Not audibly. A hook occupies a sliver of the soundhole’s edge and adds a few grams to the rim. What does change the sound is holding the instrument against your body, which a strap lets you stop doing.
So which one?
If your ukulele has no buttons and you do not want to change that, buy the Eyeshot double J-hook and stop thinking about it. If the soundhole edge worries you — solid top, gloss finish, an instrument you saved for — the D’Addario Eco-Comfort costs twice as much and cannot mark it.
If you are willing to put one hole in the tail, the Eyeshot tie strap is the best strap on this page and comes with the pin. And if you already have two buttons, or you are having them fitted anyway, the Levy’s M19LUKE-BLK is a proper leather strap for the price of a printed one.
Still buying the instrument itself? Start with the best ukuleles for beginners, or how to choose a ukulele if you have not settled on a size. Once it arrives, a stand and a set of decent strings do more for how often you pick it up than anything else you can spend $20 on.