[HANASHIR:4467] Occupational hazards of guitar playing

[LSalvay <LSalvay...>]

Dear HN-niks,
I'm wondering if any of you other guitarists has suffered any muscular 
maladies from your guitar strap, and what you've done to remedy the situation.

I've had a problem for almost a year now (it cropped up after a particularly 
intense couple of months of guitar playing for various services/religious 
school programs). It seems that ever since, there has been a permanent "knot" 
in my left shoulder muscle just near my neck -- right where the guitar strap 
rests. At one point, it got bad enough that I was experiencing numbness all 
the way down my arm and into my fingers. I went to the doctor, who told me 
all I needed was a good massage (which I never did get around to getting, but 
the numbness subsided by itself after a couple of months -- the tight 
shoulder muscle is still there, though).

This is a very long way of asking if there are any "orthopedic" guitar straps 
out there. (Boy, I must really be getting old!) I've visited every guitar 
shop in town (Kansas City), and all the guitar straps look pretty much like 
the one I already have. Just wondering if there are any alternatives that 
anyone's aware of (and where they might be available).

Thanks for any and all suggestions,

Linda Salvay

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