[rasav]

I found out that at cash america pawn shops they've got a fixtures catalog for their stores. In the fixture catalog are guitar trees ... SIX Place guitar stands! I had to wheedle and listen to the owner explain that they don't really sell fixtures to the public but in the end... Mostly because smelly seven foot tall people are bad for trading endevors... I walked out with two stands for only 60 bucks total.
So I'm starting a guitar forest in my music room!

[dadfad]

Those would be nice. I have four triple-stands I use (mostly when I go somewhere I'll take two or three of them because I have wall-mounts at home) and a four-in-line and a five-in-line racks (which I don't really like that much and rarely use). A couple of six-stands would be nice. Good find!

[dadfad]

I just found one on ebay. $29.99 + about $15 shipping.

Does it look like yours?

[kurtlives]

I prefer one guitar stands, they are more solid to me.

[dadfad]

I prefer one guitar stands, they are more solid to me.

But if you have quite a few guitars it can be an awful lot of space they take up on single-stands. In my music room I have wall-hangers, so it's not even an issue there, but for example when I go on my musical-vacations I generally take nine guitars. Three triple-stands takes up not much more room than three singles. If I had nine singles in my hotel room I could hardly walk around them. (Even three triples is cramped in some rooms.) On a stage I'll usually have three guitars and so again a triple is perfect. I can reach them all without getting up. Triples are actually pretty stable. Also, there are two basic designs: The totally suspended by the neck with a body-back rest type, and a bottom-body support with a neck rest type. While either is good the bottom support is most stable for light guitars, and the suspended by the neck is best for heavier guitars, or guitars with a less than symetrical body shape. Like electrics, National metal-bodies and, for me, an unusually shaped 1929 Stroberg-Voisenette I use pretty often.

I can imagine this six-guitar tree (which looks like the neck-suspended type) might possibly be a little top-heavy, but I think if I put my heavier guitars (like metal-bodies and semi-hollows) on the bottom and the lighter guitars on the upper part it should be pretty stable.

A good single is probably the most stable if they have the optimum tilt-back angle (but they do have some pretty unstable singles too), but good triples are pretty stable too.

(Those four or five-in-line racks are totally stable, even moreso than any single, virtually impossible to tip over. But they're heavy and take up a disproportionate amount of space in that they're pretty long and stretched out as opposed to more of a... cluster, like the triples.

Anyway, when I get it I'll see how it feels. I won't risk damaging any of my guitars on it. If it seems too unstable I'll just remove the upper part (looks like it can be done) and just have an extra triple-stand.

How do yours seem to you, Rasav?

[rasav]

How do yours seem to you, Rasav?


Mine appear a bit thicker than the one pictured. The brand is 'Mirage Percussion.' The two I have are with out a doubt "Fixtures" each stand weighs about ten pounds and expands to about 5 1/2 feet tall.
I was VERY concerned about stability so before I trusted my Harem to the stands I wiggled and jiggled, shook and generally tried to accidently knock 'em down while they were loaded with my "Loan to student" instruments. I had a few interesting moments. All in all though, unless you expect to find yourself in possesion of five year olds with ADD or teenage indoor football stars (Who are stupid enough to go into your music room) The stands are reliable and suprisingly stable. Caveat Emptor... I am not going to be hanging any of my custom made guitars on either stand.
My load out is...
Tree 1. Bottom; P-bass, Mocking bird, National Resonator. Top; Seagull dreadnaught, Floyd rose electric, Martin Classical
Tree 2. Bottom; 12 string, Bozuki, Banjo. Top; Tenor banjo, Flying V, Korean knock off of a gibson jumbo (Inner lable gone.)

The neck yokes keep most of the weight in the center but it's cantelevered far enough out at the bottom that the whole tree would still be pretty stable if I moved the heavy instruments to the top. (I'm NOT going to be doing that though!)

The only "Problem" I encountered was having to squeeze the 'Y's' a bit to snuggle my long necked instruments.

[ninjato]

You would never see me put any of my guitars on a stand like that. I like my guitars in the case when I'm not using them. Too much dusting and "grime" to constantly be cleaning off.

[The_buffalo]

You would never see me put any of my guitars on a stand like that. I like my guitars in the case when I'm not using them. Too much dusting and "grime" to constantly be cleaning off.

They're also safer in the case - especially a hardshell case, not just a gig bag. I tend to play mine more, however, when they're sitting (or "standing") right beside me.

[rasav]

I with out a doubt agree that a case is a very safe place for any instrument. But I find that when you often need to use your instruments having them out and ready is a good thing. In addition I have a very crowded studio space and keeping 12 to 16 cases for stringed instrument plus cases for winds, ethnic instruments, keyboards etc... well you just can't create in a storage locker.

This post has been edited by rasav: 22 August 2007 - 12:01 PM

[dadfad]

You would never see me put any of my guitars on a stand like that. I like my guitars in the case when I'm not using them. Too much dusting and "grime" to constantly be cleaning off.

They're also safer in the case - especially a hardshell case, not just a gig bag. I tend to play mine more, however, when they're sitting (or "standing") right beside me.

I with out a doubt agree that a case is a very safe place for any instrument. But I find that when you often need to use your instruments having them out and ready is a good thing. In addition I have a very crowded studio space and keeping 12 to 16 cases for stringed instrument plus cases for winds, ethnic instruments, keyboards etc... well you just can't create in a storage locker.

I kind of agree with everybody. Obviously, probably the best place to keep your instrument is in its case. Second best is probably hanging from the wall (assuming the hooks are secure with a proper room humidity level). At home that's how I usually keep many of mine (I only have room to hang seventeen at a time in my music room, and a couple others in other rooms. For example the only guitar I have that "fits in" with my wife's "decor" in the living room (mid-19th Century Funeral-Parlor Victorian sort of ) is a really nice old arch-top that I have in a corner on a matching single-stand I made myself out of stained and varnished walnut. (Period-design, of course! ) My other guitars are stored and/or rotated in their cases.)

So I have seventeen hanging. The hangers are all very secure and the room is humidified properly. I do agree with Rasav that a guitar that's ready to pick up is likely to be used much more often than one in a case. Also that a bunch of cases take up an awful lot of room. Before I had hangers I'd typically have one or maybe two guitars out on a couple of stands. I had a tendency to only play the music that was most appropriate for that guitar that was out. I was much less likely to change my tuning from standard, or play slide (a higher action being optimum) or work on a 12-string or whatever. Not that I wouldn't do it, just that I was much less likely to do it. And so as a consequence my slide, altered-tuning and 12-string stuff wouldn't get the required practice. Most of the time I'd just pick up the ol' 6-string in standard tuning that was usually out and that was it.

Wall-hanging solved that. Now I'll have a few 6-strings in standard (I even have preferences in standard-tuned 6-strings for specific genres... like newer Martin or Taylor for contemporary, older Gibsons for country-blues, Guild for folk/old-country, etc.) A guitar left in fingerstyle open-D; fingerstyle open-G; slide-action open-D; slide-action open-G; open-Dm; G6; Scotch-B; resonator open-D; resonator open-G; a 12-string; an open-B 12-string; and even room for an electric or two, a fiddle, a mando and a banjo. Wall hanging takes up very little space. And I'm much more likely to make my practice/playing time more varied, or likely to work on different things within the same practice-period. I'll do.... ummm.... maybe "John Henry" in standard; then open-G fingerstyle; then knife-slide open-D; and (my favorite version) open-Dm. That's just an example. If I had all of my guitars in cases there's probably no way in hell I'd bother to work on a tune in four different-styles on four different guitars all within a single hour or two long practice session. Or even on just two guitars. (Laziness? Yep! )

And stands are kind of like that. Like I said, I use them mostly when I'm not at home, but for the same reason. I want my guitars accessible with no hassle and taking up as little space as possible. I wanna be able to pick one up and put it down and pick up another, and then do it again! Assuming one is not a clutz or has a coon-hound or three year old running around in the room, they're pretty safe. No, I wouldn't leave them on stands long-term for months. But a selection of instruments I wanted readily available for immediate or regular use I wouldn't have a problem with having in stands for awhile.

The "space-factor" can be a big one. Cases take up a lot of room, and a guitar out of the case with the case "there" takes up almost twice as much space. My music room (or especially a hotel-room I might be in) already has limited space. I have a... humongous... record, tape, video, etc collection much of it in shelves in my music room. A small library on shelves of my most often-used music-books and reference-books. Also the typical stereo-system plus add-ons (CD copier-burner, high-speed duplicator, etc); a TV (with add-ons like DVD, double-tandem VHS player and recorder); an old wind-up 78 rpm console; a small amp (to go with the wireless I keep on one of the hanging electrics) and myriad other junk and gear from harmonicas to a zither to a concertina (yeah, I know! ) to a keyboard to... etc, etc, etc. Space is definitely a factor. Using hangers I can fit all that junk as well as seventeen guitars in a room that's maybe only... fifteen by twenty or so. All fairly neatly with space to move around, and of course a stool and single guitar-stand in the middle of the room for whatever I'm specifically doing at that moment (the stand in case I have to get up for the phone or the door, light a cigarette, open a beer, etc and have to set it down).


Yeah, no doubt cases are best. But in some situations just aren't as practical.... (Hmmm, searches for better word)... functional... as stands (or hangers). Cases are safer, but I'm not a clutz, and although I take excellent care of my guitars I really don't worry about a little cosmetic ding or something in the rare event that might happen. To me it's a small price to pay for convenience and accessibility. (I'll let my heirs or the tax-man worry about "re-sale value" after I'm gone. ).

Anyway... That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

[dadfad]

Update:

I got my "tree" today in UPS. Seems pretty well-constructed. I only had four guitars here in my office to try on it, but it appears to be fairly stable, etc. I wouldn't wanna leave six guitars on it forever (or take four guitars off the bottom and one side to purposely make it off-set and top-heavy, although it will still stand up fine like that), but it does seem to be a pretty decent way to temporarily have six guitars out at once for easy accessibility in a limited amount of space.

[rasav]

I wish I could have a guitar at work! Somehow asphalt plants and instruments just don't go with each other.