your opinions

[christofloffer]

i am looking for some input, suggestions and opinions. i am working on a new item for our business, i have tried a few different types of guitar stands but so far they have all come up short in terms of expense, style or stability. i have settled on this design as its a bit different from the more generic types yet still stable, sturdy and (in my opinion) aesthetically pleasing. obviously my particular style of work is not for everyone as it is very much on the rustic end of things but much like my furniture it seems to appeal to quite a few people. all my stuff is made in a very traditional way and with a bare minimum of machinery, i like to work this way as i think it makes the timber more attractive because you follow the knots rather than just sawing through them. so this is the first one of this style, in theory it could be made to order to support any number of guitars, is all solid hardwood timber and its lighter than you would think and doesnt screen off your guitars as much a some other types. so i would really appreciate some thought on the following.

what kind of price you would expect to see something like this at, or how much you would expect to pay to have one made specially? obviously we all like a bargain but i have to be logical and there is time and costs involved. i have seen other more plain designs around for what i think is too much so i would like to be as reasonable as possible and still have them worth making.

what kind of finish you would prefer? this particular one is without a finish, its is made of ash which is very clean and neutral so wouldnt cause any staining of the guitar finish but as i said its the first one so things can change later. other finishes could be stains, varnish (hard or soft), oils, wax or paint. although paint would be a bit daft in my opinion as it would seriously detract from the aesthetic.

would you prefer padding of some sort? this is my biggest sticking point. i use a thing like this when i am recording and swapping guitars a lot and i have not marked my guitars as i am careful, however i know there is a lot to be said for eliminating any risk of it. currently the best plan for padding is to use soft leather in the cradle and where the neck sits up top. we could just chuck some foam on there but that would be too cheap and tacky for what its supposed to be.

would you be prepared for self assembly? one thing about this as a design is that the fitting is nice and modular and could be made to be permanently fixed, pegged, a couple of fixed sections that slot together or entirely collapsible. it could be supplied with screws and pre-drilled holes as a basic form of self assembly, although i think screws detract from it. it could also be supplied with drilled holes and dowels to knock in yourself, quite permanent and would be more in keeping with the style. alternatively it could be made in a way that has no fixings and could therefore be entirely collapsible with no more than a light mallet.

 

i am not going for the hard sell here, these will be available soon but for the moment i would just like some opinions from people who would use them. the folks on here are a good broad mix so i cant think of a better place to ask. i'm not made of glass so if you dont like it feel free to say why, its basically a prototype so everything is valid.

[CameronJ]

A couple of things:

I think there must be some meaningful padding at any point where the guitar makes contact with the stand. Well padded leather could potentially look quite nice.

Also, what’s the clearance between the bottom rest bars and the floor? Depending on the leaning angle and the shape of the instrument there may be some danger of the body scraping the floor. It looks pretty close from the look of the pictures. 

[christofloffer]

the clearance at the bottom for the bass is pretty small, only about a half inch. the acoustic sits higher, about an inch or so. the bass did sit closer than i was expecting as i was working from the acoustic while i was eyeballing things and hadnt entirely accounted for the smaller body of an electric. i would probably bring the bars at the bottom at least an inch closer together next time. i was a little burned by a previous attempt which had the guitar facing out like a normal single stand and the acoustic was really unstable thanks to the bars being too close. in hindsight this design would not suffer in the same way. but hey, thats the beauty of making a test one first.

i am taking a look at some types of leather i could get as the type used would dictate how its fitted. the other way would be to use cord/soft rope wrapping. i have used wrapping on other things and it looks pretty good, if a bit nautical, and provides a good amount of padding. 

thanks for the input.

[TheGreek]

6 hours ago, christofloffer said:

the other way would be to use cord/soft rope wrapping

I like the rustic look of this and like the idea of the rope look. Personally if I were going for the aged/rustic look I'd think about a burnished finish to maximise the grain effect. You could go the whole hog and find branches which could be used for a fully organic look.