Guitar on Stand

Subject: Guitar on Stand
From: 53
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 03:16 PM

Do you keep a guitar on a stand so you can pick it up and play as you are passing by?

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 03:25 PM

I keep my new 20th Anni Seagull in a pub-prop on the side of a barstool, in easy reach...

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 03:56 PM

I keep a guitar and a banjo on stands, ready to play. The banjo is just an old cheap Dixon and the guitar is usually my 00-15 Martin because it's not that expensive a guitar and it has a very tough finish. When you have four cats that chase each other all over the house you don't want to leave really expensive instruments out. The ones I do leave out have been knocked over, but the carpet has saved the day so far. I used to keep my hammer dulcimer out on its stand all the time when we lived in a bigger house, but it takes up too much room in a two-room cabin.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Les from Hull
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 03:57 PM

Got four stands - bouzouki, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, electric bass all ready to go. This is my no.1 tip for new players - don't put your instrument in a case.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Wesley S
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 04:05 PM

Mine are ALWAYS in a case. The only exceptions are the old 5 string banjo and mountain dulcimer that are basically wall hangings.

With two cats and a 22 month old son that gets into everything, leaving an instrument out is inviting disaster.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 06:34 PM

My banjo and my guitar are, as I write this, on the floor beside me, leaning up against some boxes of documents in my office. I keep them within arm's reach because I most commonly use them to sing on Paltalk right here.

Sometimes they reside in the living room, each on its instrument stand, but that's not commonly handy for me. I sure couldn't keep them in the cases, because That Big Bully I Married (5 foot two) won't let me keep the cases in the living room; rather, they have to go in a back bedroom. To have the instruments back there would be out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 06:55 PM

I've got one of those stands that holds three guitars and like Less from Hull, can grab whatever I'm in the mood to play. I do keep my 1964 Martin in it's original hard shell case as well as guitars I don't play too often.

Bobert

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 07:08 PM

Three of them leaning against the wall behind me at the moment.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Mooh
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 12:48 AM

My music room is lined with wall hangers which hold most of my hangable instruments. A headless electric bass even hangs from a cord threaded through the string clamp at the end of the neck. The bass fiddle leans in the corner. The only thing which is always cased is the family fiddle and the autoharp which just doesn't adapt to hanging or standing very well. They collect more dust this way, but I play more this way too, and that's more important to me. Once in a while I'll leave a guitar in a stand, carelessly, but with a dog, cat and steady stream of young'ns it's kinda dangerous.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 02:11 AM

Guitar stand! GUITAR STAND!! What do you think a bloody sofa is for?

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 02:21 AM

Plopping into, of course, which is why thank God for stands and cases, and people who use them!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 02:33 AM

Thanks Susan,

That leads me into the song I wrote with Tom Paxton. His story, which I mangled and turned into a song.

I took myseslf a trip to Honolulu
in the moonlight the ukuleles played
I'm gonna have to buy a ukulele
to serenade my Honolulu maid.

Chorus.
Oh how I love my ukulele
it really is the apple of my eye
I set it on the chair, guess I shouldn't have left it there
Do ukuleles go to heaven when they die.

Now I'm back in Oklahoma
riding on those old Panhandle plains
My girl she stayed in Honolulu
I play my ukulele and it rains

Chorus.

At home alone I play my ukulele
I scare the dog and raise hairs on the cat
I left it on the sofa and my brother the big loafer
came sat on it and squashed that sucker flat. (Abrupt finish)

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 02:34 AM

I still leave my guitar on the sofa though.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Jeanie
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 06:37 AM

I had always been used to having musical instruments to hand, at home, all the time. Grew up with it. And as a teenager, the guitar propped up against the bedroom door made a great early warning system of Parent Entering Room !

So, it came as rather a shock that my decidedly non-musical, and now decidedly ex- husband didn't like the guitar reclining in the living room and kept moving it to the spare room until in the end I gave up the battle and it stayed up there for years, and I played and sang less and less as the real me disappeared.

Now, in my own place, I can be myself again. Not just a guitar now, but mandolin, keyboard, whistles, bodhran and my daughter's bongos, flute, clarinet, recorders all to hand. I'm sure I've missed a few out, too.

Apart from the fact that you can just pick something up for the odd 10 minutes here and there through the day, it's great when people come to the house. A couple of days ago, my daughter's schoolfriend who plays violin came over and had a go on a mandolin for the first time ever - lovely to see her delight that she knew the fingering and could play tunes on it straight away !

It was a simple enough question, Bob 53, but, as they say : "every picture and every guitar-on-a-stand tells a story" - and this is mine.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Grab
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 08:35 AM

If it's not out of its case, it doesn't get played.

I've got a "guitar corner" in the living room - the guitars sit in there, hemmed in by a couple of little side-tables so they can't fall over.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,53-Glenda at work
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 08:47 AM

I leave mine in the case and don't take it out to play it much anymore. So I took it out last night and left it out on the stand. I bet I will play it this evening. Even if only a few chords, it will be nice to get back into the habit. For a while, Bob and I played an hour every evening, sometimes two hours. But lately I haven't felt like playing much.
I WILL begin to get back to it, I WILL rebuild those callouses like they were a year ago.
Why did we stop playing alot right after the 9 11 event? Go figure. Anyway, Bob still plays some but after having some IVs in the hospital he is left with a stiff curved little finger that doesn't want to cooperate. Anyone with ideas for him to get it "rehabilitated"?
I keep telling him his best bet is to play every chance he gets, and to flex the fingers the best he can when he isn't playing. But if anyone has ideas, please share them with him. He is an excellent rhythm man and misses the flexibility he had prior to his hospital visit.

g

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Blues=Life
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 08:54 AM

I was a ho-hum guitarist for years, until I bought a guitar stand. It helped me play every day. Best gift you could possibly give an aspiring musician, to keep it "in sight, and in mind"
Blues

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: 53
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 08:59 AM

Hi g.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,g
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 09:12 AM

Hi, Bob,

Flex, Flex. Play, Play, Play. I want to start playing again- along with the 'juke box' like we used to do. So start picking out some songs for us to work on.

Thank you. Love you.

g

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: 53
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 09:13 AM

mmmmnnnn.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Midchuck
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 11:12 AM

The expensive ones go in the cases overnight. I have a wall hanger, high enough up to be cat- and visiting-child-proof, and I try to leave one on that in the daytime, so I can practice if I have five minutes free.

P.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: HuwG
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 11:49 AM

A stand ? A stand ? Proper musicians, like Hendrix, used to have an instrument slung around their necks all day, even when frying eggs for breakfast.

I must confess, it's hard to use a PC at work while wearing a Dreadnought, so I leave mine leaning against the fireplace at home. At gigs, if I'm not playing it, it is borrowed quicker than I can say "Jack Robinson", so it rarely has time to touch the furniture.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 01:28 PM

Since I play my autoharp tabletop, for years it was a real struggle to get it start up each time I wanted to play-- unsupportive and knock-around teens, cats, and so forth; plus I was sick and could barely lift it. Now it lives, most days, on a tilt-top table Hardi and I fashioned, just behind my back as I type. I can swivel and play anytime, and I made the table wide enough to have room to write, also, for working out arrangements.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 01:44 PM

The 'family room,' since I have no family, is now lined with five music stands between the baby upright and the Edison machine. I started with doubles and have escalated to triples, since without kids, musical instruments and dogs are options. They don't always mix, although the pack fairly well tolerates all instruments except the kazoo. My fearless alpha terrier Annie Jane once made the mistake of barking at a strange sound while standing about a foot from the middle of the line of stands. The sympathetic vibrations startled her so much that her ears jerked back and she dropped to the floor. Hasn't barked in that corner since.

CC

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,g
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 01:51 PM

This has turned out to be really interesting. Everyone seems to agree that keeping their instrument handy is best if you really want to enjoy it. I think mine will be spending more time readily available - that's what we have those stands for anyway.
g

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,Phil P
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 09:34 PM

The real advantage in having a stand is, one, that the instrunent should not get knocked over, and therefore break, and two, that it is definitely available to be played. I spent about two years with the guitar in a case in a cuppboard, and did not touch it, but now it is on a stand, I play it every day. It must be available to be useful.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 04:56 AM

It's cats, isn't it? My two old boys have been known to fall asleep in open guitar cases. They'll pile up the zzzzzzz's anywhere.
I often keep a guitar on the futon, ready for action, but mostly the double stand is for stage use.
My 2 cents worth.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: 53
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 08:48 AM

I keep my Taylor Big Baby on the stand for ease of playing it.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 10:15 AM

Keep my banjo in a stand. It helps me to get ten-twenty minutes unscheduled practice time or it's within reach if I hear a song that I want to try playing along to.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: GUEST,Paul Mitchell
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 04:22 AM

I have my two guitars and my mandolin hanging on the wall. They look good and are easy to pick up and play, but still out reach of my three year old son (who has his own guitar). I've just applied the same logic to an electronic keyboard that has been hanging around for ages. It's set up in the living room, and so I'm playing about on it, trying to learn some tunes, much more. I'm hoping it will encourage people to have an "acoustic doodle" or two when they are visiting.

Paul

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Willie-O
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 11:12 AM

I am solidly in the wall-hanger camp. I make them similar to a coat-peg rack, but use straight dowelling, angled slightly upwards, and spaced for a particular instrument. Guitar and banjo are usually hung facing the wall, being more stable that way.

I had an unprecedented disaster with a stand at my Friday night gig. As I was packing up, I reached for the Martin O-18 and it twisted and fell from the hanger (hanging from the peghead, no support at the bottom, and hit the base of the stand (the round, hard metal base of an old gooseneck mike stand). The side split at the point of impact and the split went right around the lower bout!   OUCCCCCHHH!

This is a 30-year-old Martin. The damage was alarming and heartrending, but I took it to Oskar Graf the next day and he looked and said "Ah, a full ventilation!" He also says it's no big deal, he'll have it ready for me next week, with a long but inconspicuous crack line added to the fairly abundant war wounds it already sports. I am more than fortunate to have Oskar in the neighbourhood!

But Jesus, was I mad at myself for letting it happen. Gotta do some more work on that stand. Maybe I'll pad the base too!

The problem with keeping instruments uncased in winter, aside from potential damage, is that you have to watch the humidity. They are prone to drying out in the room air.

Here's a really useful tip: fiddles are the easiest and safest instruments to hang on the wall. You make a hanger as described above with the dowels spaced so that you hang it by the body, using the cutouts, not by the neck. Add a separate dowel to hang the bow from and you have an excellent, safe and instantly available wall-hung fiddle & stick. Just watch out for humidity, and as with all instruments, don't put the hanger where it will get direct sunlight.

W-O

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 11:32 AM

I keep mine in their cases for the most part. I do take one case with me to work and practice at my lunch break, however. Good break from the routine.

Subject: RE: Guitar on Stand
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 12:07 PM

Guitar stands have evolved quite a bit, from the pathetically wobbly spidery metal fold-up ones of yore to some really well made ones lately. I use them now and then, but usually put the guitar back in its case.

A dachshund stand can be useful too if you have an older weiner dog. He will not want to move much at any time if he doesn't have to, and the stand provides him with good back support. If it has wheels, you can even roll him outside in inclement weather when he's unwilling to go on his own steam. Then tip him out of the stand. He will groan wearily, give you a reproachfull look, and do his "business" since he is outside anyway and has no further excuse for avoiding the inevitable. He can then be placed back in the stand and wheeled back inside for another few hours of rest. Very handy.

- LH