Check Your Hercules Stands

[Jabba_the_gut]

I've got a couple of Hercules stands and really liked them until various plastic parts turned sticky (there is another thread on here about that).

However, this morning I got the two stands out of the garage and one fell to bits when I picked it up!! The height adjustment mechanism just fell to bits - the plastic on the stand just failed. I checked the other stands and that is starting to fail too. Both stands have only seen little use. I have e-mailed Hercules regarding this. 

Glad mine didn't have a bass in it at the time but might be worth checking your stands to ensure they are still okay.

Cheers

[Pea Turgh]

Damn, I just bought two!

[RossHetherington]

I've had them since they first came out and never really had a problem with them but the don't fold them down all that often.

[franzbassist]

That's weird, and alarming!   I use two Hercules stands but the only plastic on them is the foam padding.  Hopefully I'll be safe but a good check to do each set up.

[Reggaebass]

Thanks for that jabba, I was actually looking at getting some Hercules stands at the moment as I always thought they were the best, I may reconsider now 🙂

[Jabba_the_gut]

I probably should add that these stands are about 5 years old so the design/materials may have changed on this mechanism on newer ones (the current stands on their website do look slightly different). I only posted this in case anyone else's stands start going the same way and they haven't noticed.

Cheers

[FinnDave]

I've got one that holds two guitars/basses but haven't used it much, and not at all for the last year or two. I'm just too lazy to faff about with too many things! I really ought to get it on the for sale section, it's upstairs in its box just getting in my way.

[Frank Blank]

I think there was a period during which some Hercules stands developed this problem, I have stands from before and after that period and they are fine. I bought a couple earlier this year and I checked with the salesperson that the stock was new and assured me that the newer stands were made of different materials. He knew about the this fault in particular and assured me that Hercules had taken steps to rectify it. Never had a problem with any of mine.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Frank Blank

[Jabba_the_gut]

20 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Hang on a second. Let’s get some perspective here. 

As much as @Jabba_the_gut is right to highlight this and alert other Hercules users and potential buyers, I have to say, and please don’t take offence, those two in the OP look absolutely battered mate. I’ve had mine for many years and have always kept them in their protective boxes and they have been fine. If you’re going to allow that clutch mechanism to get interfered with by contact with other gear, I would expect it’s functionality to be compromised eventually. It’s only plastic after all.

I have four of them and one of them is a three way. At times, there’s been about £10k of basses hanging from that bad boy. If I had a shred of doubt that it couldn’t handled it, I wouldn’t use Hercules.

No offence taken, but for info these look rough due to the plastic turning sticky and anything they have been in contact sticking to them! Apart from half a dozen car journeys, they have been stored away from anything else. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect them to last forever - I was purely raising this as I have never checked the mechanism as such and I guess that there are other people that would be the same. I still have a Hercules stand, a rack type, which is great.

Edited September 8, 2019 by Jabba_the_gut

[lemmywinks]

I've repaired mine as it had the fault there the neck grabbing arms became disengaged from the internal mechanism, it's an ancient one which screws together so an easy fix. I also fixed our guitarist's double stand which had the sticky coating which got scrubbed with alcohol and the leg extending screw was worn so would no longer lock in place. I sorted that by grinding down some of the plastic on the thumb screw so it could penetrate deeper and make contact with the body of the stand again.

 

I don't know if the older ones are better but mine is still going strong after well over a decade of use, I got it back when they were about £25 and its been a great buy.

Edited September 8, 2019 by lemmywinks

[BigRedX]

The plastic parts disintegrating is a side/effect development of the sticky plastic syndrome.

I was lucky enough to get 4 of my Hercules stands which had developed sticky plastic grips replaced with new ones FoC by the UK distributor. I kept a couple of the dodgy stands as backups should I need them, as the sticky plastic while annoying was not really a terminal issue. A couple of months ago when I was doing a major tidy up of unused things in my house I came across these stands and the handles on both of them had broken in the manner of the ones in the OP.

So IMO the sticky plastic syndrome while not being terminal in itself, will eventually lead to the plastic parts disintegrating.

[lemmywinks]

Btw I think there was a spate of complaints about the height adjustment part exploding, maybe a faulty batch where they tried to cut costs by using cheaper plastic? Mine gets left in the van and isn't babied at all (although looking at the price of them now maybe I should start!) and it looks much better quality than the ones in the OP's post.

 

EDIT: Seems like it's a known fault and have been replacing affected stands so shoot them a message:
http://www.herculesstands.co.uk/home/contact/708.0.4.3

Edited September 8, 2019 by lemmywinks

[oldslapper]

Had same problem, and there was a thread on here about it a while back. Hercules were brilliant and I got a new one for half price as a result of sending some pictures to them. The new ones don’t have that rubber on the mechanism anymore thankfully. 

[Reggaebass]

So am I right in assuming that Hercules have rectified these problems with their new stands 🙂

[bassfan]

Weirdly I noticed the mechanism on my gs414 was slipping yesterday.  I have mailed Hercules this morning.  I solely use that one at home and noticed the bass was almost on the floor. 

They also replaced a dual stand 18months ago when it got the dreaded sticky clutch and disintegrated. They were pretty good to be fair. I’ve used their gear for years

[Frank Blank]

19 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

So am I right in assuming that Hercules have rectified these problems with their new stands 🙂

Yes. By my experience anyway and they are pretty good at sorting it out if you do have problems.

[Reggaebass]

2 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Yes. By my experience anyway and they are pretty good at sorting it out if you do have problems.

Thanks frank 👍

[ezbass]

Garage storage may have some bearing on the demise of the plastic. Less than optimal temperatures and, if cars are stored there, there may well be some pollutant damage.

I used an old A frame stand yesterday (not a Hercules) which I’d been storing in the loft, took it to a gig and, upon opening it, the rubber at the apex just split. The environment in my loft had obviously degraded it (plus, it was probably cheap). Fortunately, not as a huge disaster as having the height control section let go on the OP’s Hercules (I have one of these too, which I may now remove from the loft to a more stable environment).

[Jabba_the_gut]

1 hour ago, lemmywinks said:

I've repaired mine as it had the fault there the neck grabbing arms became disengaged from the internal mechanism, it's an ancient one which screws together so an easy fix. I also fixed our guitarist's double stand which had the sticky coating which got scrubbed with alcohol and the leg extending screw was worn so would no longer lock in place. I sorted that by grinding down some of the plastic on the thumb screw so it could penetrate deeper and make contact with the body of the stand again.

 

I don't know if the older ones are better but mine is still going strong after well over a decade of use, I got it back when they were about £25 and its been a great buy.

Out of interest, I just tried some nail varnish remover which seemed to remove the sticky stuff. I also removed the broken mechanism and replaced it with an allen head bolt (there was already a tapped hole) - works a treat! So ended up with a working, non adjustable stand, better than binning it.

[Frank Blank]

1 hour ago, lemmywinks said:

I also fixed our guitarist's double stand which had the sticky coating which got scrubbed with alcohol

 

[FinnDave]

Just went up and checked mine, clean as a whistle (strange saying, whistles are full of saliva and other muck!) and no  stickiness to the plastic. I reckon it's about 4 years old, and has been out of the house 2 or 3 times, just been in its box the rest of the time.

[TheGreek]

I had the same problem with the release mechanism falling to pieces. I just took it off and replaced it with a nut and bolt - nolonger adjustable but still functions as it should - stopping your bass from falling over. Gave it to my niece's husband when I went to a rack - IIRC it was the type where you hang the bass from the headstock.

I think I was one of the first to highlight the problem with the stickiness but also one of the first to congratulate Hercules for their CS when they were replacing them FOC.

[Al Krow]

27 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Just went up and checked mine, clean as a whistle (strange saying, whistles are full of saliva and other muck!) and no  stickiness to the plastic. I reckon it's about 4 years old, and has been out of the house 2 or 3 50+ times, just been in its box the rest of the time.

+1 ^^ but as modified, for me.

[goingdownslow]

On ‎26‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 11:16, goingdownslow said:

This happened to one of mine about two years ago, I enquired over a replacement part but they sent me a new stand.

Not being one who likes waste I set to repair it by making a U shaped bracket using a thin metal strip ( it was the strap from an electrical earth clip I had knocking around) and araldited it in. I have been using it since, new one is still in the box.

The pivot hole being so near the edge, the roll pin being an interference fit and the pressure of that big spring does not a good design make.

Edited September 8, 2019 by goingdownslow

[T-Bay]

Another sufferer here, Hercules were brilliant and sent a replacement the next day. They asked for a number off a sicker under the bottom, as already said above they had a dodgy batch a few years back. I just stuck a nut and bolt through the old one and it works fine (apart from collapsing down obviously).