While looking for and trying many of the currently designed keyboard stands available, I can't seem to find one that will work for my needs. None of them are “flexible” enough in their design to allow the following things:
1. Must be low enough to be comfortable while sitting but adjustable for standing
2. Must have room for pedals
3. Must be easy to break down and move
4. Must be stable on a variety of surfaces
5. Must be attractively designed
6. Must be a safe perch for two keyboards
7. Must have enough room to use my lower keyboard's music stand comfortably
8. Would be nice if it had attachments for rack modules, music stands and microphones.
Maybe I should use an ironing board like Ironing Board Sam?
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Ironing Board Sam – courtesy of Blues Access, Winter 1996, No. 24 |
Mostly they seem to be designed for on stage, standing or sitting, multiple keyboards stacked tightly sitting on a hard stable surface. Now, I'm talking mainly about stands that are made/sold for keyboards and stage pianos, not digital console type pianos and such.
In the 80's I used an off brand A-Frame tubular two tier folding contraption with an “X” truss on back that attached with the tiniest and most painful thumbscrews. Contraption it was! Took forever to set up and take down...the drummer and I were always first in and last out! Let alone all the many pieces I ended up with, hopefully not forgetting any at a gig and just that much more to carry out. My load was heavy enough with two keyboards, amp, guitars, pedals, gig bag, etc.
Jump ahead 20 years, I get into playing keyboards again. I bought the Korg SV-1 88. Weighs in about 50 lbs. Long, big, heavy, cumbersome AND expensive! I wanted something that would be stable but yet stylish, easy to break down and carry that also offered a second tier and had enough room to afford the space for the SV-1's music stand.
Enter the Ultimate Apex AX-48 Pro. It offered all those things EXCEPT stability. It wobbled horribly, especially on carpet. Also, my M-Audio 61 key controller keyboard, that weighs very little, would nearly fall off if I went to banging a high octave chord in the "heat of passion" during a song. Plus, the way the tripod legs are situated, it does not offer room to put the many pedals I need at the right place while seated. I imagine that this stand was primarily made for standing playing posture. One of the promises of this unit was that I could also attach a mic to the top with a boom, but the parts required for this assembly were almost the cost of the entire stand! Ridiculous and actually very hard to understand exactly what it was on order. No one seemed to be sure that by ordering one part of the other would include all the parts in order to make that work. Sheesh. I gave up. I returned it.
Next up, after using my, uncomfortably too high, desk as my stand, I purchased the Quik-Lok Monolith M-91 with the 2nd tier. From the looks of it, designed rather well with sitting in mind. Problem, doesn't go low enough to be comfortable. The 2nd tier is an afterthought joke of design and poor quality construction. Plus it only rises about 10" total, not able to clear the SV-1's music stand again. It's going back tomorrow.
So that leaves me with ordering the stand designed for the SV-1, but it only holds the one keyboard and only the SV-1 at that. If I sell I'll lose the entire investment, as opposed to buying a stand that will fit any keyboard.
So what's next? It's a mystery. Any ideas out there? Leave a comment, a link, a review! Maybe I should get into the Keyboard stand design business? :)
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