A Really Great Mandolin Stand

[Groundcoat]

Greetings All
For all those in need of a good (REALLY good) Mandolin stand, I highly recommend the Hercules Autogrip stand with the backrest, model #GS412B. It's perfect. I think Musicians Friend has it for about $38 bucks. It's all you'll need. I use one for my guitar and another one for my mandolin.

[John Flynn]

I have the two-instrument version, the GS422B. I use it for both my mandolin and octave mandolin. It's great. I have owned a lot of stands and it is the one I think would be the most resistant to allowing an instrument hit the floor if someone bumped into it.

[jmkatcher]

I had the triple instrument version (GS432B) and thought it was great for a while.

It was in my closet for a year or so due to a move. When I pulled it out, the rubber foam had turned into a sticky mess. No response from their customer support so I tossed it.

My understanding is that this is not uncommon for Hercules stands after a year or two.

[Bill Burch]

I too had 2 of the Hercules stands develop the stickiness on the adjustment handle. I emailed Hercules customer support with pictures of the stands and they sent me replacements..no questions asked.

I'd give them another shot.

Bill

[Vincent Capostagno]

Bought the Hercules violin stand in 09. The pucks on the yoke turned gummy about a year ago. The foam pads on the legs are just fine. The yoke is a little tight for a mandolin neck. I am thinking about getting the 422 2 instrument but had some reservations about a yoke designed for a guitar neck. Glad to see some good experiences from john Flynn and others.

[foldedpath]

I had the triple instrument version (GS432B) and thought it was great for a while.

It was in my closet for a year or so due to a move. When I pulled it out, the rubber foam had turned into a sticky mess. No response from their customer support so I tossed it.

My understanding is that this is not uncommon for Hercules stands after a year or two.

I bought a Hercules stand this year to replace one that had the gummy issue. The part that went gummy on the old stand (the grip-release for height) is now a hard plastic material instead of the rubber-coated one in previous versions. So it looks like they've addressed that problem.

K&M, a quality German stand company (I use their mic stands) now has an auto-clamp stand like the Hercules:

http://produkte.k-m.de/en/Stands-and...phis-Pro-black

I bought one to try, and it's very good. The clamp head collapses smaller than the Hercules, which I like for carrying to sessions and gigs. Works fine for guitar, and also for mandolin when I added some foam pipe insulation around the clamps.

[darrylicshon]

I recently bought 2 FretRest by Proline FRMS1 Mandolin/Uke Stand which i like alot.

[Ray(T)]

Hercules also make a six instrument version which would be great for any MAS sufferers out there.

[Mike Crocker]

I've been running several varieties of Hercules stands on stage and in the lesson studio for many years without issue. One stand did have a clutch problem after being run over while loading out from a gig, but it was okay for the band's clubhouse. Compared to the competition...never mind, there's no comparison.

[Marty Jacobson]

I've had 5 Hercules wall hangers, same grip as the stands, for about 15 years. No gummy issues here. We had a minor earthquake here in 2003 and my 1931 Duolian fell on me while I was asleep, but all the instruments in the Hercules grips just swung around a bit.

[Bill Cameron]

I've been using a Herc double for about five years. Super durable and stable and no decomposition noted. The only problem I've ever had is that some people who are helpfully hanging up an instrument assume that the lower arms are for the instrument body to sit upon, rather than to push against the back. Then the safety clips dont swing into place, and my guitar crashes to the floor, and I dont like that.
Its a really good stand. There are no foolproof stands.

[dhergert]

Greetings All
For all those in need of a good (REALLY good) Mandolin stand, I highly recommend the Hercules Autogrip stand with the backrest, model #GS412B. It's perfect. I think Musicians Friend has it for about $38 bucks. It's all you'll need. I use one for my guitar and another one for my mandolin.

Greetings to you and all here also...

I've had some negative experiences with the Hercules stands. We were so impressed with them conceptually that we bought six of them for use with most of our instruments about 10 years ago. In the years since then, I've seen the soft rubber parts get gummy to a point of not wanting to put anything with a nice finish against them (or even to touch them with our hands). I've also seen the sprung plastic pieces break, causing the whole stand to become non-functional...

And, the icing in the cake... A few years ago at a warm-up session just before a televised gig I had hung my F9 on its still functional Hercules stand while playing banjo, and in removing the mandolin to play it for a few songs, one of the Auto Grab System (AGS) "fingers" caught my F9's nut and cracked it as I pulled the instrument away, rendering one of my two "E" strings unusable.

To be fair, it is possible that in my haste to get the instrument I may have not lifted the F9 up high enough to completely release the Hercules AGS "fingers", but if so, that's something that is far too easy to do. Whatever the case, the original nut was toast and I had to jury-rig a quick shim under the affected string to make the instrument playable for that gig.

And of course after the gig I also had to replace the F9's original nut -- the instrument plays better because of the new nut in the long run, but I would have liked to have had a choice about keeping the original nut.

Today nearly all of our Hercules stands are non-functional due to the "decomposition" described. And even if they weren't, after the F9 nut AGS experience I'd much prefer just to store our instruments in their cases. For on stage if we can't store our instruments in their cases, we have a RockStand 7-instrument stand that we situate in a corner where there is no foot traffic and we watch it like a hawk.

I don't know if Hercules has taken care of the soft rubber and sprung plastic situations that occurred with their older stands. If they have that's great; we still do admire the Hercules stand design as far as balance and stability are concerned. But I'd highly recommend watching your instruments' ins and outs of the Auto Grab System. That's an accident waiting to happen -- again.

Generally instrument stands have a bad reputation for being at least partially responsible for the damages that instruments suffer when being "stood". Having been in instrument repair for a number of years, I can support that reputation. The Hercules balanced stand design is a step above most of the stands I've seen, but it is also not immune to being kicked or bumped, or to being used improperly. Cases have a much better track record.

Best of luck with this!

[jim simpson]

"Auto Grab System (AGS) "fingers" caught my F9's nut and cracked it as I pulled the instrument away" ...

Did your F9 have the Corian nut? I had an A9 a while back that had the Corian, I had to file and soften the edges as they were so sharp. I never saw a need to change it.

I've been using the Hercules violin/viola stand for my mandolin and quite like it. I also have a number of guitar stands in the studio and fortunately have not experienced the issues you've described. I wonder if there have been improvements or changes in the material used?

[dhergert]

Did your F9 have the Corian nut? I had an A9 a while back that had the Corian, I had to file and soften the edges as they were so sharp. I never saw a need to change it. ...

Jim, I'm not sure about the composition of the original nut... This is a 2002 F9, and was advertised in the specs as having a bone nut, but in all of my working with nut fabrication and repair I've never seen a true bone nut crumble like this one did, so it might have been Corian. I did try to glue it back together with cyanoacrylate and baking soda, but it crumbled even worse with that, and made it clear that a replacement would be necessary. And I did replace it with a real bone nut.

Regarding the current Hercules stands, some here have reported that the company has made some strides in correcting the "gummy" situation. But I haven't heard about the broken sprung plastic pieces, so I don't know about that. The part I'm talking about is the hand-grip sprung piece that allows adjustments to height. I've had that part break on at least four of the stands we bought 10 years ago.

I'd say if you're having good luck with your Hercules stands, that's great... Just watch for the normal things you watch out for with instrument stands, plus watch those AGS "fingers".

[trevor]

I use these originally recommended by Dan Beimborn.

https://www.guitar-galleries.co.uk/p...Am4aAmoS8P8HAQ

[Ron McMillan]

I use these originally recommended by Dan Beimborn.

https://www.guitar-galleries.co.uk/p...Am4aAmoS8P8HAQ

That is a very neat little stand.

[djeffcoat]

I like this Hercules Violin/Mandolin stand:

https://www.amazon.com/Hercules-DS57.../dp/B00126HUFE

[darrylicshon]

I use these originally recommended by Dan Beimborn.

https://www.guitar-galleries.co.uk/p...Am4aAmoS8P8HAQ

I have one of those they work fine

[mandowilli]

I use three instruments at gigs and this stand works great and gives me peace of mind. I had to adapt one of the hangers to accept the width of my square neck dobro. The footprint of the stand is also a plus in that it takes up very little space but is sturdy.

No gummy issue here. Could it be climate related? Where I live it is very dry and more often cold or cool than hot.

[foldedpath]

No gummy issue here. Could it be climate related? Where I live it is very dry and more often cold or cool than hot.

The handle section used to have a thin rubber or vinyl coating, and now there is no coating, just hard plastic. Environmental conditions may have had something to do with the deterioration, especially if your stands are earlier ones with that coating and it's not gummy. Or maybe it was just a bad batch at some point.

Anyway, with hard plastic now it shouldn't be a problem for anyone buying a new Hercules stand. Although I still like the new K&M auto-clamp guitar stand better, because it's more compact and the clamp folds up better.

[Jim Roberts]

I had the "gummy issue" on my Hercules stand, too. I called the folks at Hercules, exchanged a few emails with them and yesterday my replacement stand arrived. Excellent customer service.

[Lowlands Blue]

I recently picked up the Hercules GS303B Folk stand for my mandolin. Been using one of their stands for my guitar for a couple of years now. Love the quality build and sturdiness of both stands. I have yet to experience any issues with then getting gummy, but will now keep an eye on my older stand

[Mandobart]

I picked up a few folding instrument stands from Cooper Stands at Wintergrass. The folding guitar stands fit in the neck compartment of most of my guitar cases. The folding uke/mando stands fit in a couple of my mando cases. Very handy to bring a stand along to a jam in the case. NFI.

[gspiess]

$8.96 and free shipping with Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[gspiess]

Our church has several of the Hercules mic stands with the "squeeze handle" height adjustment. After four years we noticed that the plastic was becoming sticky. I researched degrading plastic and household solutions: vinegar, peanut butter, brake fluid, Goo-gone... They all resulted in some improvement but not much. Eventually we just masked them off and spray painted the plastic, acting as a sealant. Problem solved.