X Stands, scourge or savior?

[Hanon_CTS]

Hello forum!
{Warning, the following thread is for entertainment purposes only.
Comments contained within are not necessarily shared by the entire forum staff.
No keyboard stands were harmed in the making of this thread.
Any resemblance to stands, either living or dead, is purely coincidental}

I'll share a moderation team inside joke:

How can you tell when Hanon has posted another topic?
Easy! There's a huge spike in the stats for the rolling eyes emoticon usage throughout the forums....

Yes we track those

Here's another random "roll eyes" thought:

Riddle me this Batman:
"What costs more to ship, than to actually manufacture?"

Oops, wrong Riddler....
{please note: Matthew Lesko is not the real Riddler. Of course, neither was Jim Carrey}



The real Riddler, aka Frank Gorshin


"X Stands" (Scourge, or Savior?)

No, it's not another bad X-Men sequel, there's way too many of those already.


I'm talking about those ironing board stands that seemed to pop up almost over night in the mid eighties, and have been omnipresent ever since.
If I had a shiny nickle for every X stand that I've bought over the years, well I'd have a whole bunch of shiny nickles.
These are dreadful stands that wobble side to side at the pivot point proportionate to the weight of the keyboard that it supports.

I remember playing a Roland A-90 on one that wobbled so bad that we had to write a time signature change halfway through every song to keep it from flying off the stand and injuring someone in the audience....
OK, I'm kind of exaggerating there.... there wasn't really an audience

X Stands aren't all bad. They're way better than a pair of cleverly arranged bar stools, and can be "combined into some pretty interesting combinations" {Mojo Jojo redundancy reference}.

This combination example graciously shared by simonbeck:

Rockin_Arrangement.JPG (36.36 KiB) Viewed 6198 times

Thankfully 2012 has brought us some creative alternatives (although I'd much prefer the jetpack that I was promised as a child. When is that coming?)

Enough of my ramblings.
What are your thoughts?

Cheers, Hanon


btw:
and that's how we invented the telegraph....

[DJKeys]

The heavy duty ones are not bad. I use an on-stage two tier in my studio. The thinner ones are just too unstable. They also have a small footprint that does not work well on anything but a completely level surface. However, for live playing there are better alternatives. I use this one by On Stage, and it can be modified to be used with one keyboard or two. All the attachments fit well and are interchangeable:

http://www.onstagestands.com/catalog/it ... /GRP000072

-dj

[qtipcore]

I have a Morgan-branded QuicLok double-tier.
It's fairly stable, but I've never been able to get the upper keyboard to be level to the lower.

I've also got a simple std x-type Morgan stand; Don't get me started on that one.
It's ok as long as you don't play the keyboard sat on top of it I guess:-)

[Michael Wright]

I have two in the house plus couple of heavy profile stands. I don't use them out, its just I leave my apex stand in the car. I am getting lazy moving stuff around. Cheers Mike

[Hanon_CTS]

Hi Mike,
Nice Yamaha CP-70/80 in that avatar
That is a great keyboard stand (and electric piano)

[simonbeck]

I love this thread! Of course, now that I've got a cheapo Apex copy I'm an Ex-X-Stander. My keyboard rig now (finally) looks 21st-century, and I call it SkaShip Central. See, I play in a ska band... oh, never mind.

[Hanon_CTS]

I'm an Ex-X-Stander

If we had a ROFL smiley,
I'd be using a dozen of them right now.

[Michael Wright]

Hi Mike,
Nice Yamaha CP-70/80 in that avatar
That is a great keyboard stand (and electric piano)

Hi Hanon
It was a CP 70 B. It and the polysix are long gone, that was about 30 years ago!! Scary. Now that you mention it, I never had a keyboard stand, unit I bought
a Roland RD-300 I think it was. The Yamaha was a great stand, just a pain to move!! Mike

[Hanon_CTS]

The Yamaha was a great stand, just a pain to move!! Mike

I hear ya!
I had one of those Yamaha stands, and a Hammond A100 stand.
When it came time to move, I had more angry band mates than a rugby scrum.

Cheers, Hanon

[Michael Wright]

The Yamaha was a great stand, just a pain to move!! Mike

I hear ya!
I had one of those Yamaha stands, and a Hammond A100 stand.
When it came time to move, I had more angry band mates than a rugby scrum.

Cheers, Hanon

You were lucky then!! Usually it was just me and the drummer left!! Well not always but it sure felt that way some nights! Cheers Mike