Herculean disaster - guitar stand fail.

[wintermoon]

A guitar case laid on it's side instead of on it's back is hard to step on.

I hate to break it to the forum but Hercules have been known for their stand failures for quite some time. It's Chinese junk, so if you want to put your 10k jazz archtop on a piece of shit MIC stand go for it. Just don't pretend you're intelligent and don't seek sympathy when you're scheduling a headstock repair with your favorite luthier.

I've been using them for years w out incident and even if it broke my guitar wouldn't fall to the ground it would just settle into the corner where I keep them.
Anything can fail genius, including every guitar stand out there, unless you count those old Hamilton stands, but the surgical tubing will melt your nitro, so there's that.
Hell, even the handle on your precious case could break and snap the headstock

[customxke]

You sound annoyed. If you were concerned about off gassing, you would buy a different case for it. If you knew it would affect the finish, and you cared about the finish, an intelligent person would do that. If you don't give a shit then neither does anyone else.

I hate to tell you this, but many guitars off gas , regardless of the case. It’s not the case….it’s a matter of the guitar being in an enclosed space that accelerates the process. This is a jazz guitar forum….you don’t have to be tool here. Anyway, I hope the rest of your day is as nice as you are.

[DawgBone]

I hate to tell you this, but many guitars off gas , regardless of the case. It’s not the case….it’s a matter of the guitar being in an enclosed space that accelerates the process. This is a jazz guitar forum….you don’t have to be tool here. Anyway, I hope the rest of your day is as nice as you are.

I guess I'd rather risk getting a finish damaged by off gassing than have a broken headstock but thanks for your thoughts and insults. I don't have some weird fetish about an inanimate object. It's not much different than a wrench to me. A tool for getting a job done. I wouldn't put a tool that was critical to my employment on a piece of shit chinese guitar stand if I want it to remain functional. Hercules is known for major failures. I guess you want to argue about that but this isn't the first forum where hercules guitar stands have been brought into question, and therefore stand use in general. That I don't have sympathy for people who use them and guitar is knocked over and damaged makes me a rotten guy. That perception doesn't bother me, lol.

[bluejaybill]

Drunks can knock anything over that isn't bolted down. I'll stick with the case method. It's cheaper too. And less stuff to carry!

I am a dedicated case guy, I only use stand while working at home. And back in the case when I'm done.

But when I was gigging, I never worked on a stage with room for cases, they always went in the back room. Plus I often used more than one guitar, so I used a multi stand. Never had a problem at a gig. Plus, a guitar in a case seems to have a much easier time walking out the door when you're not looking!

[DawgBone]

I am a dedicated case guy, I only use stand while working at home. And back in the case when I'm done.

But when I was gigging, I never worked on a stage with room for cases, they always went in the back room. Plus I often used more than one guitar, so I used a multi stand. Never had a problem at a gig. Plus, a guitar in a case seems to have a much easier time walking out the door when you're not looking!

I have rowdy dogs at home. I do own one of these junk hercules stands. It has reliably and safely held an air guitar on it since it showed up here and I educated my wife about the deficiencies of using a guitar stand.

I play on a few small stages. I get to be the boss so my case goes where I say it does. I need to have spare strings, cutters, and a winder close by so if the stage is a postage stamp I keep it on the ground stage right out of harms way of fool plow boys and corn feds. I've never had a case sprout legs and walk out the door. I have a rule, one guy keeps his eyes on the stage during breaks. Yeah it means I don't get to smoke rope in the engine room on break with the other malcontents but I ain't lost a guitar yet!

[blackcat]

One of my students asked me once what is the best guitar stand.My reply was a guitar case.I always put my guitar back in it's case even on gigs.Never had any damage to my guitars outside of the usual scratches or minor dents.I've read a couple of guitar threads where people say it's to much effort to take it out of the case and plug it in.Have we really become this lazy especially if one is playing at home.

Would have given the same response except that it was one of those student type people ( a six foot version ) who walked over two hardshell cases backstage at a gig we did at a local high school once when he spotted his girl friend arrive during a sound check. Mine was one of them!

[blackcat]

Those stands are meant for putting guitars on them, not for throwing chairs at them. Sorry. Looks to me as if the stand was not welded very good at the breakage point.

Who said anything about 'throwing' the chair? Point is that a weld is not sound design at that juncture - the pin or rod emanating from the two-pronged cradle should surely have been inserted into the uprigh and not butt jointed.

[hotpepper01]

Who said anything about 'throwing' the chair? Point is that a weld is not sound design at that juncture - the pin or rod emanating from the two-pronged cradle should surely have been inserted into the uprigh and not butt jointed.

That was me just joking. Look, it is only a 40 Euro piece of kit that failed under a load that was far from normal. But, I have to agree that the weld was poorly done. IMHO the design is not great but acceptable. The weld is a production flaw. Here in the Netherlands one would say that it was produced on a monday morning.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Drunks can knock anything over that isn't bolted down.

It's not just drunks - the biggest hazard to my stuff at the club where I play 2 shows a week has been drummers. The most recent mishap was caused by one who (though younger than I am) is not 100% stable because of age and joint replacements combined with a bit of carelessness. He tripped over one of the cymbal stands while trying to squeeze behind the kit from the wrong side, with my guitar on its stand directly in the path of his fall. I was sitting on my stool within arms' reach of the guitar. I shouted to him to go around to the other side, but he kept going. I was watching him very closely and saw him start to fall - so I bolted off the stool, grabbed him from behind, and pushed him toward the drums.

Fortunately, he landed on the floor tom instead of directly on my guitar. He did manage to push the low mic stand from in front of the Vibrolux (next to the guitar) onto the guitar itself. The guitar was shifted enough for the back to hit the front edge of the amp, and the rubberized end of the boom hit the treble side of the lower bout on the front. Thankfully, the only damage was some surface swirlies from rubbing on the Tolex plus a few minor marks on the front between the knobs and the tailpiece. I was able to polish it all out with Virtuoso.

Another one once let a stick fly that barely missed my guitar while I was playing it. They also routinely ignore cables and devices on the stage floor. We've had several cables and connectors damaged by drummers who step on them. It only takes a fraction of a second for the unexpected to change history, so protecting the guitar is a full time job!

[Cunamara]

...thanks for your thoughts and insults.

Well, what did you expect? If you are insulting, other people will probably respond in kind.

[blackcat]

That was me just joking. Look, it is only a 40 Euro piece of kit that failed under a load that was far from normal. But, I have to agree that the weld was poorly done. IMHO the design is not great but acceptable. The weld is a production flaw. Here in the Netherlands one would say that it was produced on a monday morning.

Joke taken. That said, I maintain poor design from the outset ( notions of 'fitness for purpose'? )rather than a poor weld tho' it may also have been that. Not so much the 40€, but the thought of the value of any given guitar that might have been sitting on the 'arms'.

[DawgBone]

Well, what did you expect? If you are insulting, other people will probably respond in kind.

It was expected though. Is it an insult to say it's not intelligent to put a valued instrument on a piece of shit guitar stand? I was trying to put it as nicely as possible. My inner bandleader would use the term "dumbass" for that kind of behavior. Thanks for listening.

[RJVB]

I really like this Hercules stand (GS414B Plus) with its auto grip system and instant height adjustment clutch.[/INDENT]

I've got the collapsable-head version of that. Has been very good at holding my archtop and now my Cabaret at home, despite frolicking cats. I prefer to keep my instruments out despite the fact they collect dust that way. Keeps them breathing and resonating, and I can see if a string snaps. Plus, my manattic is so small that manipulating bulky gigbags and getting instruments into and out of them might be more risky than just leaving them on stands (or on that 1 wall hanger I also have).