So Many Keyboard Stands
Posted By Scott on January 21, 2010
One reason I blog is to tell people about the mistakes I’ve made in hopes they don’t repeat them. Over the last year I’ve managed to purchase I think seven stands for my three keyboards. I’ve now got some work to do selling the stands I don’t like on EBAY. One thing I don’t like about any of the keyboard stands I’ve purchased to date is the height adjustment isn’t very micro. Usually it’s about two inches between settings. One Z stand had almost three inches between settings. If necessary the Z type stands can easily have extra holes drilled between the setting holes to fine tune it to your desired height. The basic scissors (ironing board) type stand I don’t like because those big X bars underneath don’t give much leg room to reach pedals and space is limited as to where you can place pedals underneath. The Z type stands have more leg room and space for pedals. I thought the Z stands were the ticket until I got a Roland PK-5A bass pedal unit. You need a big space for that device.
Table top stand, with mike, sheet music and light
I have now switched to a table top type stand as seen in the picture above. The legs angle out on it and I’m happy how quick it folds for transport also. I’m going to be adding to this table stand a bit as I want to put an add on bar on the back for a microphone goose-neck and a full length sheet music rack with lights. As you can see in the picture I now have a mike stand and sheet music stand on the floor plus a light which is mounted on the table next to the keyboard. Those three items I hope to make disappear into my table add on. The only downside of the table top stand is it is not near as stable as the other types as the legs are not very wide. I would only want to use it for sit down playing. If you had kids running around in the house then a Z stand would be a better choice. I’m also looking into how I could make my Z stands a bit wider. If I could do that I’d be a bit more happy with them.
There is more to a stand than just the stand. I didn’t mention that most companies sell teir attachments (sometimes called risers) so you can add another keyboard or two on the same stand. Other attachments include mike booms and sheet music racks. A type of stand I didn’t mention so far is the column stand which is one big support column with feet and stand arms that fold in for transport. The column stands sure look cool on stage but run in the hundreds of dollars range in cost. Yet another type of stand I’ve seen I call the swing set stand known as an A-Frame stand. They literally look like a kids swingset and are big and strong for supporting multiple big heavy keyboards with attachments.
In summary just let me say that you probably will never find the perfect stand. But surely you will have fun trying too. There are several companies selling keyboard stands however currently I like the On Stage brand of stands the best.
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