There’s a piece of advice I received pretty early on in my audio career, my young and starry-eyed self enamoured with tube compressors, high-end monitors and mixing consoles, dreams of my own studio, perfectly tuned and aesthetically pleasing.
The advice was this: buy yourself the necessary tools slowly, so that you don’t need to invest huge amounts of money when you do open that dream studio. The necessary tools are things like microphone cables, adapters and music stands. A handful of quality mic cables a year as you progress will have you well stocked after ten years in the game, as will a music stand here and there. No matter how many music stands you have, you’ll often find yourself needing one more, and their use over the years will call for quality stands. Low-quality, wobbly mic stands are a nightmare, wearing out from session to session, and drooping as clients try their best to remain focused and performing their hearts out. Hercules stands, as a prime example, are a high quality stand that’ll find use day after day, session after session and year after year. A handful of guitar stands around the studio or the home can solve a lot of problems too.
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This applies to students and schools as well, with the year anew and the year ahead requiring some quality stands!
For the musicians reading, investing in your own quality stuff will have you safely stowing instruments and sheet music at sessions. You’d hate for your beloved instrument to be at the behest of an old, crappy stand supplied by a studio or school!
Hercules BS030BB Fold up Light Music Stand
The Hercules BS030BB Fold up Light Music Stand is a great example, arriving safely in a bag to carry it with you, and featuring a totally fold-up design that also has two page retainers to keep your sheet music secure and opened onto the correct page. The strong, tripod design can support up to 2.5kg, the sturdy tube design being robust at either 60cm or at the full extension of 120cm.
The BS100B Music Stand features Hercules’ EZ Glide technology. The Clutchless Grip allows the stand to be adjusted and securely easily—a feat you’ll find yourself doing more than you realise, either as a musician or studio engineer! The BS100B extends from 69cm to 124cm, the EZ Angle Roller also allowing the main desk (rated for 1.45kg) to be adjusted and secured. The EZ Glide Clutchless Grip itself is adjustable as well, and the BS100B’s desk features extra wide arms to support multiple pages if need be.
Moving up the range in terms of stability, the BS200BPLUS is a professional grade music stand, intended for use within orchestras, though available to everyone! EZ Height Adjustment Grip allows for one handed adjustment, very important when holding an orchestral instrument or a handful of microphones during a session. The BS200BPLUS is also designed to be stackable for space saving in studios or rehearsal halls, and can be stowed away easily with the Hercules BSC800 rolling cart.
Sheet music aside, guitar stands are an ever present tool in our lives, used to show off our precious instruments in the home, studio or on stage! For the latter, well-built and road-ready stands are a necessity, the Hercules GS414BPLUS filling this brief to a tee.
GS414BPLUS
The GS414BPLUS is a robust stand that features Hercules Auto Grip Technology, using the weight of your guitar to close little flippers around the neck of the guitar, securing it in place. The GS414BPLUS features Specially Formulated Foam (SFF) at all contact points to secure your instrument, as well as having N.I.N.A. (Narrow Instrument Neck Adjustment, HA301) attached to secure instruments like mandolin or banjo, with narrower necks than a traditional guitar. The standard fitting will accommodate neck sizes of 40 mm – 52 mm (1.57”-2.05”).
All of this is to say that at some point in your career, if not now, music stands are going to be a hot commodity, and even hotter commodity if you choose to buy cheap and nasty. So start with some of the best, one at a time, and when that orchestral recording comes knocking on the doors of your studio, you’ll be ready.
For musicians, a few stands of your own can save you the headache of a shoddy stand, either for practice at home or performance in professional environments. Instrument stands like the GS414BPLUS are some of the best in the biz, providing a robust yet lightweight solution to storing your instrument, with a few bells and whistles to protect and secure it safely! Beyond the handful of products discussed here, Hercules has a range of stands and accessories for just about everything, so don’t feel you’ll be left out!
Featuring a few helpful additions based on the needs of their end users, Hercules music stands serve everything that a traditional stand can, with a few features to make adjustment both easier and more secure. Well-built, robust, portable and designed-to-last, we could all do a few more Hercules products around the house and studio.
For local Hercules enquiries, visit ELFA.
